Can this audio be saved or is my film ruined? - Your help is needed please!

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yophoto91

Active member
Hi all,

I just spent the last 6 months working on a short 9 minute film and we just finished filming it last week. Due to the simple nature of the film, it was a single day shoot in which we recorded two (different angles) 9 minute uncut takes of myself delivering a poetic speech as I looked right into the camera’s lens. It was filmed on a Canon 5D Mark II and I was under the impression the sound guy had things under control, but it turns out he fed the microphone (Rode NTG-2) directly into the 5D’s noisy internal mic input. Not only is their a huge amount of background hiss/noise present in both files, but the recording level is extremely low, despite good placement of the shotgun mic (the mic was placed within 2 feet of the actor’s mouth)…in order to hear the dialogue I have to turn the volume up on my speakers to maximum, which of course also increases the noise, making it unusable. For the record the background noise/hiss is consistent. I tried cleaning the 2 files up in Soundbooth and did a decent job, but I honestly know very little about dealing with post production audio. A lot of work went into this production and visually it turned out great, but the audio is a mess (the two files sound different in terms of characteristics as well, and I don't know how to match them). Although I’ve invested huge amounts of time and energy into this project, it is all being done on a low-budget and I’m not sure I can afford the cost of going to a professional ADR studio to record a 9 minute speech. I have a Zoom H4N and the Rode NTG-2, but I figure if I try to do the ADR myself with minimal sound/software knowledge the result wouldn’t turn out great, even if I had plenty of time to do. So I’m hoping one of you sound guys can take a listen to a snippet of my sound file (I can e-mail it to you) and see if you can work your magic to clean it up. I would be extremely grateful if one of you pros could help me out and would certainly give you a credit in the film, if you wish.

Your time is greatly appreciated.

Thanks and take care,

Mark
 
yophoto91 said:
I tried cleaning the 2 files up in Soundbooth and did a decent job...,
Click to expand...

That may be all you can hope for. And only you can define "decent".

As has been suggested, you will get much better results if you can post a representative sample online somewhere and post the URL here. Post an uncompressed (WAV, etc.) sample vs a compressed (MP3, etc.) sample.
 
Thank you for the replies. I actually have the files uploaded on a server, but I'd rather not post the URL publicly. I will send you a PM.

Thanks and take care,

Mark
 
ADR is not too hard to do on your own. Just practice first with your sound equipment so you know
how to get someone's voice recorded just how you like it. Get everything set up first.

Then prepare loops for the actors. Usually I have prepared a segment of the film a line or two at a time and made it loop.
It all depends on how good your actors are. If they are properly trained you can have a long loop with many lines and the actor
will probably hit every one perfectly. For amateur actors I have done a line at a time.

Then get them over and record. Once it is done eq the recording and most importantly add
reverb that suits the environment. Good luck
 
Having heard the tracks, the major problem, as the OP stated, is simply that the recording level is dramatically too low. In addition, it sounds a bit "thin".

However, it isn't clear that a better level would have resulted in a really good audio track considering that it was being recorded on a DSLR. Camcorders in general, and even high-end camcorders, are not known for having good audio sections. And the fact that DSLRs record sound at all is remarkable, rather like teaching a dog to walk on his hind legs. IMHO, DSLR sound tracks are good for nothing but a "scratch track" to sync the video up to the proper sound recording (which was done with proper sound equipment).

The noise is broadband and continuous (i.e. "hiss") which means that filtering or even convolution won't be very effective. IMHO, the best the OP can do is gating and covering the remaining noise with SFX, music, or whatever. Of course, those are production decisions based on things we know nothing about, so it is up to the OP to make those kinds of judgement calls.

I have to agree with J.Davis that ADR or re-shooting seem like the only viable means of getting a good dialog track. Since the OP is also the performer and the producer, (and the editor?) it would seem that much easier (and more incentive) to do ADR with a proper recording setup.

Dunno why that much preproduction work ("6 months") was put into this but they didn't even do a test recording to see if the sound was right?
 
Thanks for the replies guys. This production is unique in many respects, so to try to explain all the reasons for what went wrong on the day of the shoot would take too much time and I wouldn't want to bore you with the details. All I will say is that the audio was NOT supposed to be recorded onto the DSLR. Being the writer, actor, and director, why didn't I monitor the sound personally on the day of the shoot to get a taste of of the sound quality? Again, there is so much that is unique about this project, this question will be best answered once you see the final product (and believe it or not, this is not a weak excuse on my part to cover up the mistake). Fortunately, a gracious member of this forum helped me out and played around with the audio files and I've been amazed by the result, and thus feel the project has been salvaged. Still though, for those who have the time, expertise, and/or interest, I'd appreciate it if you could take a stab at the audio files and work your magic (please PM me, and I'll send you a link).

Thanks again everyone.
 
You were right to try to get someone to do audio for you (most here think you can do it yourself, which is like trying to do your own dental work), but what was your production sound budget? Did you hire someone inexperienced? The LAST place anyone on the planet should choose to record audio is to a DSLR, as you know. Hopefully, others here will learn from this. Hire an experienced sound person!


yophoto91 said:
Thanks for the replies guys. This production is unique in many respects, so to try to explain all the reasons for what went wrong on the day of the shoot would take too much time and I wouldn't want to bore you with the details. All I will say is that the audio was NOT supposed to be recorded onto the DSLR. Being the writer, actor, and director, why didn't I monitor the sound personally on the day of the shoot to get a taste of of the sound quality? Again, there is so much that is unique about this project, this question will be best answered once you see the final product (and believe it or not, this is not a weak excuse on my part to cover up the mistake). Fortunately, a gracious member of this forum helped me out and played around with the audio files and I've been amazed by the result, and thus feel the project has been salvaged. Still though, for those who have the time, expertise, and/or interest, I'd appreciate it if you could take a stab at the audio files and work your magic (please PM me, and I'll send you a link).

Thanks again everyone.
Click to expand...
 
If worse comes to worse, you only lost one day of shooting, and all the shots are of you. So you could just get a real soind person, same camera guy, and re shoot your stuff with the quality it deserves. As I say concerning audio recorded badly, "You can't polish a turd". You can make it less turdly, but you can't make it sound like it would if everything went right.

Oh I see this is an old thread... I wish the OP would have posted the results. Hey yophoto91, do you have a link to the finished film?
 
If the noise is constant it is probably pretty removable. But, and it's a BIG but, Noise reduction is a subtractive process. If your signal is low in the first place you would probably also remove a lot of what you want. You could try the demo of "Rx" by iZotope and see if it helps. If it was only one day I would probably reshoot rather than try ADR.
 
As a FYI in future I would take a listen to some of the first takes when you shoot. It's a little time "wasted' but if you catch a problem it just saved you a ton of time. Flash drives are not like tape, you can play them back and not have the issues you can get into if you do that with a DV tape.

Once your confident the sound person is doing a good job you can go on as normal.
 
So the OP got his help, but didn't care to share the results? The point of this forum is to help others by posting the results and sharing the methods used to get those results.
 
again someone who learned that sound is not something that just belongs to image, but is as important (and I say, even more important then video) as video.

Learning from mistakes is the best way...
 
Hey everyone. I apologize for not responding sooner. I had not realized that there were additional responses to this thread.

First of all, here is the final product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMb7UmCwAkc

Second of all, I was completely aware of the importance of sound going into the project. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, there were extenuating circumstances as to why I personally did not check the sound quality/levels on location at the time of filming. The reason I did not is because I put my full trust in the camera operator and his assistant whom I was under the impression had things in check. Additionally, being that I was the both the director and actor in this project, my energy levels were practically non existent considering the physical preparation (weight loss) I had undergone to get to that point in time and didn't have the time (sun light was fading) nor energy to double check the levels. Next time I nearly starve myself for three months for a short film, I'll be sure not to make this mistake. ;)

Thankfully, one of you guys on the forum (Brooks) came through and did an amazing job fixing up the sound. It may not sound perfect to you, but trust me when I say the original files were barely salvageable. I’m eternally grateful to him.

Anyway, sorry again for the delayed response.

Take care,

Mark
 
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As I read it right, your DOP was also your soundguy ??

Well if it was so.... NEVER DO. A DOP is a DOP who has to concentrate on the image (and not on the sound, or not 100%, although if he also takes care of the boom not coming in the image is fine

And a soundguy...is a soundguy... who only concentrate on the sound.

A good soundguy is someone who stops the shooting of the shot because there's a giant airplane or truck passing so the sound isn't usable...so it would be a waste of time to continue.
 
dre83 said:
As I read it right, your DOP was also your soundguy ??

Well if it was so.... NEVER DO. A DOP is a DOP who has to concentrate on the image (and not on the sound, or not 100%, although if he also takes care of the boom not coming in the image is fine

And a soundguy...is a soundguy... who only concentrate on the sound.

A good soundguy is someone who stops the shooting of the shot because there's a giant airplane or truck passing so the sound isn't usable...so it would be a waste of time to continue.
Click to expand...

The DP recommended his assistant who he said could take care of the sound. I agree with you completely about the importance of finding a dedicated sound guy who knows his stuff and will fight with the DP to get that mic as close as possible. Definitely a great learning experience for future projects!
 
yophoto91 said:
The DP recommended his assistant who he said could take care of the sound. I agree with you completely about the importance of finding a dedicated sound guy who knows his stuff and will fight with the DP to get that mic as close as possible. Definitely a great learning experience for future projects!
Click to expand...

"Fighting" is a bit exagerated....mostly DP's keep some kind of space above the head which isn't to big...otherwise it's like your uncle Sam's wedding video's....(to much "headroom", space above the head...) So in 90% of the times I didn't had problems with that.

But doing sound is more then only holding a mice.
 
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