audio audio audio

S

scar this armada

Active member
So, ive started my very first short film. Now ive got all the video under control, but the audio im not so hot on. Im using a [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sennheiser MKE 300 for all the audio, anyway for some reason i get alot of noise when i shoot with it. ive talked to a few people about audio tips and nothing too good has surfaced, so i decided to post here. just if anyone has any idea how to clean up audio in post ,whether it be reducing noise or just making it sound better in general, plaese just let me know. Thank you much ahead of time eh.[/FONT]
 
If you haven't already shot, fix the noise now. It's MUCH more work in post and not always possible. Sounds like you may have some settings wrong? Or maybe the mic is bad? If you are not a sound person and you think it's noisy it's probably worse than you think.

For folks to help though you need to be more specific about the chain. Mic to ?mixer/ preamp to ?camera. Are you booming? Is this camer mounted? etc
 
yeah,sorry. its the Sennheiser MKE 300 boomed on a pole, and going straight into the camera. One instance i know for sure is, i was trying to record a clock ticking, like the second hand, and it seems very noisy to me. im all pretty much only working with adobe premiere. on many of the takes with audio, i dont notice noise but some of the takes trying to pick up softer sounds it get distracting.
 
Are you just turning up the gain to get the softer sounds lounder after the fact or did you make sure to mic in close enough when you recorded it?

Once the range between signal and noise has been established it is permenent. There are noise reducers that will kill some noise but they take away your signal too leaving your audio sounding empty and hollow.

A few things that immediately come to mind with your chain; get a better preamp (mixer will do this), get the mic closer to softer sounds, and kill as much ambient noise as possible. Also if the softer sounds are narrative dialog, have the actor raise the signal ("Could you deliver that line a little lounder please?") Had a whole rant recently on actors that whisper to achieve drama.

Work it out before post: Garbage in, garbage out :badputer: ....or ADR :angry:

Cheers
 
For clock ticking ..you might consider just dropping in a sfx track of a generic clock ticking on your timeline in post to get a cleaner sound.
 
yeah, the mic was pretty close to the clock, i cant tell if the noise is ambient noise or from the mic/cam system. yeah i tired a low pass filter in premiere and it took away some of the noise but also changed the sound of the clock completely. I looked at putting a sfx track i went through a bunch but havent came across one that sounded the way i want it too, hahaha.
 
its the mic. you dont notice the noise normally because of higher signal to noise. but on quieter stuff, the ratio isnt as high and you're hearing the mics self noise.

typical symptom of a cheaper microphone...
 
I've used that mic before, and it's very very noisy. I liked the onboard camera mic better than that mic. I'd return it and get the rode NTG-2.

-Dave
 
You didn't say what camera you are using. If it has an AGC feature, that would also account for why you are hearing the noise more at low sound levels. If you can, turn it off and adjust your levels manually.

If you have Adobe Audition along with Premiere, Audition's noise reduction filters will do a pretty good job of reducing/eliminating the white noise but there is still typically some damage to the sound you want to keep. As has already been said, it's best to do what you can to get a clean recording.

-Dan
 
I'musing a vx2100, i guess after this short ill look at different mics. Im not using adution but i may look into ordering it, i would love to learn more about audio, and its pretty much one of the only classes i need to take still for my degree hahaha.
 
A VX2100 has an automatic gain control (AGC) feature that you can turn off. AGC will crank up the gain when the general sound level is low. If your mic is noisy, it will pump up that noise as well. Looking at a VX2100 manual, it looks like the option is labeled 'Mic Level'. You could try setting it to manual and adjusting the levels yourself although it probably won't help you with recording a low level sound with a noisy mic.
-Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top