cleaning audio in post

HerzogisGod

HerzogisGod

Well-known member
it's far from horrendous but occasionally I get interference through my wireless... sounds like very faint swoosh beneath the talents words...

am filming in NYC... outdoors.. and it's a documentary so cannot always have them repeat takes

Are there EQ's that can clean up some of this faint swoosh sound?
 
I have had some good results using SOUNDBOOTH, part of CS5.No idea what is available in the Mac world, if that is what you are using. You cannot always get out everything you need to get rid of without it affecting other parts of the audio, but sometimes you can make stray noises completely disappear, or at least greatly diminish their annoyance. It will show you a spectral graph of the sound and you can go in there and surgically remove the parts you dont want. regular EQ isnt going to really do that, unless the sound is in a very narrow range and you can use a parametric notch filter. Also, a lot of times hits like that occur between words or syllables and you can just delete them and replace them with 'room tone' (even outside). if it is truly under a word, depending on the tonality of the voice the spectral cutting technique may or may not work. Ifit really isnt working you can get a little creative and even find another place where teh subject says the same word and replace it. that can get tricky but sometimes it works. SInce you are outside and it'is a doc, and kind organic anyway, you could even add in a fake background sound like a dog barking or something to disguise the hit. PM me if you want to send me a sample of what you are talking about. I wouldnt mind playing with it for a few minutes to see if anything i just said will actually work for you.
 
About the only thing that I can think of (that doesn't cost more than a car) is Rx by iZotope. What you describe is something that is particularly hard to clean up. But if it's in the clear then Rx can do "spectral repair" on it and often do some magic. If it's in the vocal range, and I think I know what your talking about and it is, then it will be next to impossible to remove it under dialog. I would give it a shot though, you never know.

One point is though that you should only try this on a good sound system that is calibrated, actually calibration isn't that important for this, or good headphones. The reason is that cheesy systems (AKA computer/ multimedia speakers and a lot of home speakers) will alter the sound so much that you could do things that sound really bad on other systems. Noise reduction applications can do a lot of damage quickly so you need to pay attention to how the sound changes. It's easy to focus on what you want to remove so you need to A/B with the original. I have more than once gone down the uber cleanup route only to later scrap it all because the result lost too much of the life of the original.
 
i saved the audio clip as a wav file on my thumb drive... how do I get it on the site? do i need an audio hosting account?
 
Send me your email Herz. I'll send you what I just quickly did to your file. It's not perfect. When the static happens and is louder than the words being spoken at that exact time, there isn't a lot you can do. But you'll see how 5 minutes of work reduces the static, lowered the car horn, and removed most of the wind rumble. PM me the address...
 
Chadfish said:
Send me your email Herz. I'll send you what I just quickly did to your file. It's not perfect. When the static happens and is louder than the words being spoken at that exact time, there isn't a lot you can do. But you'll see how 5 minutes of work reduces the static, lowered the car horn, and removed most of the wind rumble. PM me the address...
Click to expand...


Thanks Chadfish

I sent over my email



Best,
Chris
 
Right On Chadfish..People helping people on the forum...This DVX community is awesome and my hat is off to you!
That is a great set of spectral tools for a decent price and 64 bit as well. You can't beat that.
 
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Just glad to help. It took me 5 minutes to clean that up because I have the tools. I don't know if HG used it, or was just inspired to buy the app. I just think RX is like magic on a lot of stuff. It's so satisfying to see a plosive, or rumble or click disappear before your eyes & ears. Just today I greatly reduced traffic noise from an on-cam with a PinMic at a car lot 25 feet from the 101 going through town.
 
Nice Job there Chadfish! I hope Rode is sending you lots of free stuff, and if they send any extra send it my way please! Nice studio you got there. BTW enjoyed your lav shootout in which the Sanken sounded stellar, but I was also very surprised by the Rodes sound not to mention the versatility of connections....
Very Nice!
 
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