Mic bumping sound

scorsesefan

scorsesefan

Veteran
Even though I've owned the fx6 for awhile I forgot how crappy the stock mic holder is and recorded some essential audio for a doc using it. There is a lot of handling noise (bumps, etc.) in about 20 minutes of stuff that made the cut until I got wise and used a Rycote mic holder. Some of it is over dialogue. Is there any way in Audition to fix it? I thought I saw a YT video at some point of someone using the spectrogram to isolate such bumps. Thanks

mic noise sample.aif

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
An easy thing to try...with a copy of your source audio... is the online version of Adobe Enhance Speech. The online version currently has a better model than what's in Premiere etc. There are two big models...it defaults to v2, which is what you probably want. v1 give more of a booming podcast voice result. v2 is better for dialog. Then after processing, if you're a Creative Cloud subscriber (ie- you subscribe to Premiere, Photoshop, etc), then you'll see two sliders to adjust now much "enhancement" and "noise reduction" you want. You'll probably want less than the defaults. Enhance speech should do a decent job with the handling noise below the bump stage...not sure how it'll do with bumps, but it's easy to find out: https://podcast.adobe.com/en/enhance#

And ya, in Audition, you can use the spectral frequency display to isolate and remove certain noise. It's a model similar to (and I think based on code licensed from) iZotope's RX. In my experience, most with the RX version, reducing noise with a spectral frequency display works better on mid to high frequency stuff...or real steady-state lower frequency stuff (e.g., fridge hum). But it's a pretty dang useful tool. Here's the basic Adobe help file rundown of its noise reduction tools (outside the spectrogram). You probably already found it, but it popped up on google as I looked for a video I wanted to link to: https://helpx.adobe.com/audition/using/noise-reduction-restoration-effects.html

Here's a long but good video by Jason Levine on using the Audition Spectral Frequency Display. It's from nine years ago, so probably misses some features like maybe the healing brush (I haven't looked at this video in many years) but gives good background on what you can and can't do with the tool:

On second thought, Jason's video is really long. There are probably shorter and more recent videos that'll get across what you need to know. Like maybe this five-minute one from a couple years ago: https://www.adobe.com/learn/audition/web/audition-spectral-frequency-display-cc

Or find another with a length that matches your patience. ;-) And there are LOTS of other noise-reduction tools (I have several). But with Audition and the online version of enhance speech, you can probably get a result you like or at least can live with.

Oh, and my order of operation would probably be use the spectral frequency display first to try to minimize or eliminate the big bumps and then maybe use Enhance Speech to clean up the other stuff. And then add some room tone under the cleaned-up speech to keep it real (man).

Hope this helps a little...
 
I have always found if the noise is in the same frequency as the voice there not much you can do. Handling noise is usually in the lower frequencies. So if you cut the lows the voice will have less bass but sometimes its better than nothing so it doesn't hurt to try. Mics have had that same roll off setting to reduce handling noise and the rumble of wind noise which you can apply the same effect in post.
 
So that's a bigger challenge. For me, sometimes, treating bumps intertwined with dialog like plosives can help. As in: you may not reduce the whole mic hit, but you can reduce it. Again, I'm more familiar with RX than with Audition, but does Audition have a de-plosive or a de-click tool that works on lower frequencies? Like the one in RX, Acon Restoration suite (DeClick has a plosive and thump control), and other tools? Not trying to make you spend money, but see what you can find about reducing plosives (which occur with dialog around them) in Audition....

And in the spectral view, maybe zoom in and carefully brush out just the lower, more-intense part of the bump. Like below 80Hz or so...As little as possible, but just to take out some of the energy of the hit. Sort of like a super-selective high-pass filter like Peter is suggesting.

And try the stem/track separation in the online version of Adobe Enhance Speech...Part of the mic hit will probably end up in the speech track, but perhaps not as much as you're hearing on the source...

And since it's a doc, maybe viewers will roll with the noise if you can make it just a little less intense...
 
Jim Feeley said:
So that's a bigger challenge. For me, sometimes, treating bumps intertwined with dialog like plosives can help. As in: you may not reduce the whole mic hit, but you can reduce it. Again, I'm more familiar with RX than with Audition, but does Audition have a de-plosive or a de-click tool that works on lower frequencies? Like the one in RX, Acon Restoration suite (DeClick has a plosive and thump control), and other tools? Not trying to make you spend money, but see what you can find about reducing plosives (which occur with dialog around them) in Audition....

And in the spectral view, maybe zoom in and carefully brush out just the lower, more-intense part of the bump. Like below 80Hz or so...As little as possible, but just to take out some of the energy of the hit. Sort of like a super-selective high-pass filter like Peter is suggesting.

And try the stem/track separation in the online version of Adobe Enhance Speech...Part of the mic hit will probably end up in the speech track, but perhaps not as much as you're hearing on the source...

And since it's a doc, maybe viewers will roll with the noise if you can make it just a little less intense...
Click to expand...
Thanks, Jim. Is there a difference between "brushing" out and cutting out in the spectral view?
 
I don't think there's a big difference in the end result. I was thinking along the lines of making selections with the Audition lasso tool and the brush-selection tool.

But also maybe try the spot-healing brush, which uses machine learning (ie- AI but I think not the latest AI) to remove selected sounds and bring in some of the surrounding sound... sometimes that gives a more natural result, and sometimes just introduces different noises. Alas, I don't think there's a bunch of good documentation and examples of using these tools...

Peter and Alex and others are for sure better at this stuff than me. But I do end up doing a fair amount of audio work and do have various tools. If you are up for sharing say 20-30 seconds of material with typical problems (assuming most/all of the bumps and problems are pretty much the same), I could take a peek at it this weekend. If nothing else, I can probably help you determine if these are DIY problems, or if they're something you'll have to send to a good audio-post person (and/or live with).

Good luck!
 
Thanks, Jim. There is a link to a clip in the OP if you feel like giving it a shot...
Jim Feeley said:
I don't think there's a big difference in the end result. I was thinking along the lines of making selections with the Audition lasso tool and the brush-selection tool.

But also maybe try the spot-healing brush, which uses machine learning (ie- AI but I think not the latest AI) to remove selected sounds and bring in some of the surrounding sound... sometimes that gives a more natural result, and sometimes just introduces different noises. Alas, I don't think there's a bunch of good documentation and examples of using these tools...

Peter and Alex and others are for sure better at this stuff than me. But I do end up doing a fair amount of audio work and do have various tools. If you are up for sharing say 20-30 seconds of material with typical problems (assuming most/all of the bumps and problems are pretty much the same), I could take a peek at it this weekend. If nothing else, I can probably help you determine if these are DIY problems, or if they're something you'll have to send to a good audio-post person (and/or live with).

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
After you get through this you should come with plan to either get the mic off the camera or get a better shock mount.

Few things come to mind:

wear one of those clip on audio recorders as a back up. If your moving around the mic moves with you

Get a portable mic stand that’s quick to setup combine it with a wireless shotgun

A good 3rd party camera mic shock mount and use a mic with low handling noise.
 
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I was able to remove 90 percent of the bumps using Audition’s spot healing brush. What a great tool! (Thanks @Jim Feeley ) Most of the noise was below voice in the spectrum so I was able to scrub it out and not affect voice, with the exception of one male who sort of low bass. Okay, I’ll stop bitching about AI for awhile ;)… BTW the clip I posted was not salvageable (at least with my limited skills) so I found some additional footage that allowed me to cut the clip out. Thanks all.
 
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