FCP or Soundtrack Pro for this minor audio issue?

F

FilmBoy77

Veteran
i have a dialogue scene in the film i'm editing and audio is fine except towards the end my actor speaks kinda low on one of his lines and at the same time a loud truck drives by on the highway in the background.

what's the best way to amplify the actor's voice and take the sound level of the truck down?

i'm using FCP 5.1.4 and soundtrack pro
 
Bad news - bg noise is pretty much in there. You can try and expander in STP or you could try some kind of noise removal, but you may not get the results you are looking for.

You can always increase the volume of the track and eq it to remove the low rumble. Finally, add clean 'room tone' over the parts where actor is not speaking. This may minimize the problem, or could just make it sound doctored.

The only way to do it right is ADR.


Jason
 
ugh, i hate that adr sound. i've never done it, but seems like you can always tell the filmmaker did it in a studio, etc.

i seem to remember apple used to have an example of stp on their site (demo or something) with a woman in a speedboat talking and they turned the volume of the engine on the boat down so you could just hear the woman talking....what's that technique? is that what you mentioned above?

i think they sampled the background noise or something and turned the volume down on it.
 
The good news is that ADR is not nearly as bad for quick lines. Yeah, you'll probably notice it every time you watch the production, but careful execution will minimize the "out of place" sound.

Can you get the original audio gear (specifically, the mic) used on-location?

Make sure that you record in a dead room. Any audible acoustic signature from the room will make the ADR harder to intercut. But if you have the original mic, and can record completely dry, you can fake it pretty well with your room tone bed from the location (you did record room tone out there, didn't you?).
 
Just checkin', not making assumptions... and flashing back to a scene from "Living in Oblivion."
 
75% to 90% of audio in many movies and TV shows these days- especially heavy action movies is ADR. Embrace it. :)

-Noah
 
NoahK said:
75% to 90% of audio in many movies and TV shows these days- especially heavy action movies is ADR. Embrace it. :)

-Noah
Click to expand...

Yep. People say they hate ADR but that's because they only notice it when it's done badly. Most of it is done so well you don't even notice. And you don't have to be a pro. A lot of Primer was re-recorded after the fact.

But since you asked, the tool in Soundtrack Pro you want to try is noise print.

First you look at your audio file in the STP timeline and you look for a part in the audio where you only have the noise you wish to reduce (e.g. a slight pause between two parts of a speech).

Then with your cursor you drag accross this part in the timeline to select it. The selected part will be highlighted. Finally you choose "Set Noise Print" from the Process > Noise Reduction pulldown menu to set the selected part as your Noise Print.

To reduce the noise:

Once your Noise Print has been set, press CMD+A to select your entire STP audio clip in the timeline and choose "Reduce Noise" from the Process > Noise Reduction pulldown menu. The Noise Reduction window will open.

Play your timeline from the Noise Reduction window and listen if the results are any good (they hardly ever are with the standard settings, very much depending on the amplitude of your noise and the way it is interfering with the sound you wish to preserve). Then you can use the Treshold and Reduction sliders to fine-tune your noise reduction.
 
thanks beutta, yeah i'm not really getting the results i want, but i'm wondering if i need to play around more with the settings because it's not making that dramatic of a difference.

it's really just one short line where a truck goes by in the background, i guess worse case scenario i'll have the guy say the line again in the same type of environment.
 
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