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audio problem: only have one audio channel
Ok I wonder if you can help me…I recorded footage on my canon xh a1, and at some point in the interview the external mic wasn’t plugged in properly,and I didn’t notice for a good half an hour.
Now the audio only plays out of one speaker (one channel? im not sure if channel is the right word). How can I edit the audio so it plays out of both speakers? Is it possible to copy the one channel in sony vegas or acid pro and paste it in the other channel, or something like that?
Another question..during the interview, the sound of traffic is very noticeable and distracting, how can I edit out the sound of traffic just so I have the interviewee’s voice? what is the best tool for this.I have Sony vegas and acid pro, but am prepared to use and software.Thanks
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3 Replies
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It is entirely normal for an external monophonic microphone to only record to one channel, so this might not even be a mistake at all. In any case:
Right click the clip on the timeline > Channels > Left Only
As far as traffic noise, well, that’s not really fixable. You can decrease the prominence with a good deal of work, but variable background noise is impossible to fix absolutely and is well worth spending time to avoid during production.
That said, you can use equalizer plugins to emphasize the voice. For men, maybe 80-160Hz, for women, maybe 150-250Hz, for speaking voices anyhow. Of course there are all kinds of rich harmonics, so simply boosting that range and decreasing everything else will sound awful. Low rumbly traffic might be vulnerable to low cut equalization. A very gentle noise gate below a certain decibel level can definitely help. And, when all else fails, don’t be afraid to cheat and drop a music bed underneath to hide the traffic!
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Thanks for the response,
As I said, I’m no sure ‘channel’ is the right word, but regardless the audio only plays out of one speaker, and this is obviously not normal with external mics.
Can you possibly explain exactly how I can try your other suggestions? What is low cut-equalization? and what is a noise gate?
Thanks very much
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It is entirely normal for professional monophonic mics to record to only one channel, specifically the left one. You can set the camera to duplicate the left monophonic channel to the right as well, but this is entirely redundant and unnecessary.
As far as the low cut goes, that’s equalization. I’m guessing the traffic noise you get through the wall is low frequency, so a little EQ will improve the situation, but it certainly won’t “fix” it. The noise gate is more complex and might work, but my guess is it won’t. You can set it to make every noise below a certain level go to -inf., meaning that you could set the gate to make the traffic noise go to silence if it’s always below a certain level and leave the voice alone, but, more than likely, this means you get completely silent between speaking and then the traffic noise bursts on when people are talking, like what you hear with voice-activated microphones. Anyhow, apply a noise gate filter and use it gently and you might also see some improvement.
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