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Audio Problem in Wedding Video, Can Anyone Help Me Out?
Over the weekend I shot a wedding with my DVX100b. During the reception, a live band played. In order to avoid clipping and peaking, I adjusted the mic input. The loudest audio present was the vocalist singing, so I used this as a baseline to make the adjustments. At the vocalist’s loudest, the recordings were well below the “danger zone” as indicated by the meters on the camera. When I went to capture the footage in Final Cut, the levels appeared to be perfect in Final Cut’s audio meters. However, the actual audio itself as some issues. While the actual instrumentation and ambience sounds great, whenever a vocalist opens their mouth, the audio pops a great deal. It’s odd, since the actual vocals sound like they’ve been recorded well, but over the top of the vocal audio there is a constant series of pops. And again, the levels within Final Cut don’t seem to be identifying any actual “clipping.” The further away from the vocalist the camera is, the less the prominent the pops. I am not giving my hopes up and know that the audio level may have just been too intense for the mic to take regardless of of the input level. However, I was wondering if there is ANY audio filter in Final Cut (or anywhere for that matter) that might be able to adjust the issue or smooth out the popping. If anyone could help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated.
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7 Replies
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Sounds like the vocalist was singing too close to the mic and popping the membrane. You might tyr the Vocal DePopper filter.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
I attempted the dePopper, but unfortunately it didn’t do anything at all. Now that I’ve been listening to it a bit longer, I would describe it more as an irritating BUZZING noise. This occurs ANYTIME someone sings into the mic, even softly. To make matters more confounding, I had someone recording extra shots here and there on a low-quality minidv camcorder as a backup, and the vocalist audio quality on that (other than having ridiculously loud ambience and background noise) sounds FAR better…I’m really stumped about this one. Could it be an audio capturing issue?
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Did you happen to wear headphones when you were shooting?
Maybe Soundtrack Pro can help. There is no simple filter that will eliminate what you call pops. You may be able to find the sample on the spectrum and eliminate it.
It may be possible that the audio mix from the band was not good in that case, there is nothing you can do.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
No, unfortunately I wasn’t wearing headphones. I know an amateur mistake. Now that I’m listening to it through the camera, the buzzing is still there…but there really wasn’t anything I could have adjusted in camera to change it, as the buzzing occurs on the vocals no matter what the dB. I think it may be a problem with the bass mix, as it is the sort of sound a stereo makes when you’ve turned the bass up too high. Is there an easy way to drop the bass down to test this out?
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Okay, a brief update. I ran a AUlowpass filter on the clip through Final Cut, cutting the frequency off at 4000. This seems to greatly undercut the buzzing noise. The audio sounds more tinny of course and not nearly as deep, but at least the buzzing is MOSTLY gone. I was wondering if this means anything to anyone, does it indicate what the problem may have been? I’m curious so that I can correct this in the future.
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In a situation like this, I would patch a wireless mic transmitter into the band’s mixer board. Any semi-decent band should be using a board that has an Aux Return, which is usually a 1/4″. Patch the transmitter to this, setting the transmitter to line. Make the adjustments to your reciever and camera to keep it within acceptable range, and you’ll get the cleanest mix you can. Best part of this is that you get the band audio on one track for a clean mix.
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I like tinkering with my dad’s video equipment but when my sister got married last month and they asked me to handle the wedding videography in Chicago, I refused because it’s problems like this that I’m scared of. I don’t want the blame to be put on me. It will take time before I can be a professional videographer.
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