audio improvement techniques?

[John Fishback]

You can duplicate the audio track pasting it into other audio tracks. That will improve the gain. Then, you can use Soundtrack Pro to learn and then reduce the noise. If you search you’ll find details of the workflow.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[David Johnson]

Just to reaffirm what John suggested, the most important technique will be to use a separate audio editing application … as with all video editing applications, FCP only has basic audio editing.

As you will find, cleaning up poorly recorded audio is not at all easy (unless the noise is only minor and the intended audio is at a decent level) so you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches and time by doing whatever is necessary to get good audio to start with (ie, never rely on a camera mic only unless you just want ambient sound).

[Joseph Holder]

Thank you both, you’re completely right. I just added more gain, and that helped a lot. The noise reduction did ok.. but I know next time I will try to get better audio. The best thing to do would be to get a shotgun mic.

[Michael Gissing]

[Joseph Holder] “The best thing to do would be to get a shotgun mic.”

No the best thing would be to get a sound recordist. They come with a whole range of microphones and experience.

Too often I get people asking me to recommend a microphone to put on top of a camera. There is no point in mounting a mic on a camera if you want proper sound unless you intend to put the camera on a pole above the persons head. It makes for lousy pictures and good sound so when you put the camera where it makes good pictures, the sound is similarly compromised.

[Joseph Holder]

With a mic mounted to the camera your angles would be compromised you mean? So I guess someone with extensive knowledge on that would be able to work while I would do the filming.

[Lynette Gilbert]

It’s obviously more desirable to get a sound recordist, but if you work completely alone like I do (I comprise the entire video department at my company), then you have no choice.

I use a camera-mounted shotgun, and it usually works great (unless I’m in a very noisy room). I’ve even used it in a pinch for recording interviews (my old lav was very unreliable, but they finally got me a new one – woot!) Obviously, if I’m using talent or doing an interview, I use the lav, but like I said, I know that if something goes wrong, my shotgun will work just fine.

[Joseph Holder]

that’s great! so, a shotgun mic would definitely work better than the built in camera mic. It would also help quiet sounds to be heard with more noise.

[Michael Gissing]

[Joseph Holder] “so, a shotgun mic would definitely work better than the built in camera mic. It would also help quiet sounds to be heard with more noise.”

Not necessarily. It is not just about the microphone. Where the mics is, background noise, acoustics are all important. Sometimes a shotgun is worse if the person talking walks out of shot , or two people are talking and you are only focusing on one.

Its a bit like saying a good lens will make pictures better and then forgetting about lighting, exposure, framing and focus.That’s why good pictures and sound need skill and expertise, preferable with more than a one man band approach.

A mic on a camera, like a radio lav on one character, is a mic out of control from a sound recordist’s point of view.

[Joseph Holder]

It’s definitely about how you place the mic and use it. I could also go in post and do A.D.R. there which would also be great.