audio track shows miniscule waveforms

[Randall_Oelerich]

Shot my first short film. Editing in Vegas. Dialog/ambient audio track associated with the video shows very little waveform, almost invisibible, sometimes in fact I see nothing on the audio track, and yet I hear the actor, ducks, wind, etc. Why am I not seeing the more classic sound waveform graphics on the audio track? I recorded using a Rode NTG-2 shotgun microphone, XLR cabling into a BeachTek adapter, then into my Canon VIXIA HF100.

 

[Ducatimark]

Is the track compressed, as in do you just need to expand the audio track?

Also, I have found that some tracks that seem to be recorded okay do show little waveform. I open them up in SoundForge where I put the compressor and mastering EQ to it (and saving to a new file) bring it back to Vegas and then the waveform appears.

You might try the same with the audio effects built into Vegas if you don't have SoundForge. I'm not sure if Vegas has an Audio waveform scale that you could use to enlarge it otherwise. Maybe someone more familiar with the peculiarities of audio could explain to both of us.

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

If you mean the height of the audio track, it is normal height. The audio seems clean, I kept the gain on the BeachTek and camcorder extremely low, because this is a really nice microphone and I had it on a boompole right over the actor's head. Sounds good when played, it is just that I see almost no waveform, or in fact sometimes no waveform, puzzled as to where the waveform is; I would like to be able to see the waveform for editing purposes, etc.

Why does adding a compressor expand the waveform, make it visible? That seems the opposite of what I would expect, i.e. wouldn't compression compress the waveform and make it smaller, less visible?

For editing my audio, should I buy SoundForge, or will my Sony ACID Pro 6.0 suffice?

Is the track compressed, as in do you just need to expand the audio track?

Also, I have found that some tracks that seem to be recorded okay do show little waveform. I open them up in SoundForge where I put the compressor and mastering EQ to it (and saving to a new file) bring it back to Vegas and then the waveform appears.

You might try the same with the audio effects built into Vegas if you don't have SoundForge. I'm not sure if Vegas has an Audio waveform scale that you could use to enlarge it otherwise. Maybe someone more familiar with the peculiarities of audio could explain to both of us.

 

[David Jimerson]

ACID can be good for adding a few effects, but it doesn't have the tools SoundForge does.

It could be that the levels of the sound recorded are just low enough that it doesn't show much of a waveform.

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

I just ordered Sound Forge 9.0 (the $399 retail version), looks like it will let me do some pretty nice sound editing, film scoring, etc.!

ACID can be good for adding a few effects, but it doesn't have the tools SoundForge does. It could be that the levels of the sound recorded are just low enough that it doesn't show much of a waveform.

 

[Ducatimark]

I hope I didn't encourage you to spend mo' money!

Try out the Izotope Mastering Effects bundle that comes with Sound Forge. Excellent tools, worth the purchase alone. Also, if you ever need tone for Broadcast, it is in there as well (use search to find it).

Good luck, I think you'll appreciate having it. I've got the same mic BTW. I think it is one of the best bargains around. I've also got a Rode NT-3 that I use as a complement to the NT-1 for recording stereo.