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Audio tweaks
I’m doing a spot in which an AZ Diamondbacks player is a talking head. He was shot inside the empty stadium. He was miced with a lav on one channel and a boom mike on the other, shot in 3 or 4 different locations in the stadium. The audio is solid, but when I got them all into a rough cut, the sound is a little bit different in each setting. There’s is also quite a bit of rumble noise in some shots that I can get rid of in SoundtrackPro or Soundsoap, but what I’m after is some help in eqing the rest of it. I don’t have the budget to take it to a sound house.
Thoughts?
Have a wonderful day.
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8 Replies
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Chris,
If you use just the channel with the lavalier do you still notice the differences?
DRW
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Hmmm,
Haven’t tried that, but I’ll bet it would help.
Have a wonderful day.
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I’d also trying compressing it. Sometimes that helps cover some of the differences.
However, if the location sound has different characteristics (reverb, timbre) due to the
area it was shot in (such as close to a reflective surface or in the middle of the field) you will stuggle with that…Ron
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Ron,
I have no experience with compressing audio, is there a white paper or something you know of? Or should I just search the archives?
Have a wonderful day.
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Chris,
The lavs offer much more isolation than any camera mic or shotgum type mic. You should be much better off using just that channel.
DRW
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[Chris Poisson] “I have no experience with compressing audio…”
As a starting point, adjust the Settings to an “all 2’s” formula:
Threshold (db) -20
Ratio 2
Attack Time 20
Release Time 200
Preserve Volume CHECKED (very important!)Now click the viewer to display the actual audio track and set the Level to “2” or “3.”
Now, when you play the track it should be at a “more consistent” level.
You can play with my “all 2’s” formula if you want, but its a good starting point for compressing the levels without a lot of compressor “pumping.”
The “Threshold” setting will affect the clip the most… as you slide left, it brings more of the low levels UP.
The actual volume adjustment now comes from the “Level” slider on the actual audio track (and you can key-frame that if you want.) -
This is EXACTLY what Soundtrack Pro is for. Scrubbing audio of background noise is an easy procedure, though the degree to which you can get it all out is different with each shot. Getting out an airplane that crosses the sky and dopplers through dialog is tough (for example – since I just dealt with this today). You can minimize it, but you’ll never get it out. Getting out low end rumble and consistent bg noise is pretty easy. Learn how to export to STP and you’ll fix this in no time.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills… -
I forgot to add the main part of my post above (Duh – it’s been a long day) – use the spectral analyzer to look at the waveform in STP. This should help you EQ and even isolate the trouble frequencies. Then you can EQ it sort of visually. This has helped me in similar situations.
-DM
G5 Dual 2.5Ghz
OSX4 FCP5
Lots of Ram – Lots of cables – Lots of bills…
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