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Best way to set up audio for 2 way interview
I am trying to find the best way to edit two way video/audio interviews with Sony Vegas. I have the best sit in chairs looking at each other with a camera by each of their sides shooting the other person. I then use shotgun mics just out of frame to pick up the audio and feed them into one of the cameras with each person on a separate track.
In post production I put each microphone and its own track and adjust compression and other audio tweaks. To get the cleanest audio I find myself creating volume envelopes for each track and adjust them depending on who is talking. This helps the audio sound cleaner since the audio does not bleed over from the other microphone in the room. Many the interviews are several hours long and it becomes a very tedious process adjust the envelopes when the conversation goes back and forth. It is a little faster if I keep the audio as a stereo track and then pan Left to Right as each person talks and down mix into mono but I loose the feature of being able to apply audio effects separate to each track. I can render the audio out and bring it back it and then apply an audio track effect for each track but is an extra step.
It would be nice if there was some kind of plug in that would automatically cut out the sound on the track with the lower volume so you did not hear the audio bleed. Maybe even a plug in that created all the volume envelopes automatically so if there was a place in the interview that you wanted them talking over each other you would only have to adjust those spots.
What are some tips and tricks that might help in post production with a two person interview that you have used?
Thanks!
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3 Replies
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I don’t profess to know a lot about audio processing but, from the reading I’ve done, it sounds like you need to apply a noise gate to each track.
I’m sure others will offer more advice on how to best use this tool but Wikipedia has a good explanation at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_gate
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I always use a volume envelope for this but as Mike said, if that’s too much work, use a Noise Gate. It’s on every audio track in Vegas as one of the default FX; you just need to change the threshold to have it kick in. You should keep this before any compressor or else the compressor might defeat the purpose of the noise gate (this is how Sony has it set up by default Noise Gate -> Track EQ -> Track Compressor).
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thank you for the advice.
It seems like the best way is to use some kind of envelope on each track. Playing around with the noise gate works for some situations but find myself have to adjust things manually anyway when sound goes above the noise gate when one person starts talking really loud and the other microphone picks it up more or one person is making some kind of noise like moving papers, slight cough, scratch their clothing, etc.
Just got done editing a few hours of audio and video and using a new method that is speeding up the process. Right now I am keeping the audio track in stereo from the main camera with the mic feeds and using a pan envelope to go back and forth between each person with one person on the left track and the other person on the right. This allows me to easily adjust which microphone I want the sound coming from and put the pan in the center if they are talking over each other.
Using this method I only have to adjust one envelope instead of two envelopes if I had them on separate tracks and allows for smoothing transitions between each person when cutting back and forth.
From there in my audio chain I am using a free VST plugin called RS Balance Pro that allows you to take a stereo signal and send them both to the right and left track with volume controls to balance each person out and mix it down to mono. After that I use the Wave Hammer plugin to level out the signal even more and go through the Izotope Denoiser plugin to get rid of any constant background noise.
Seems to work good but would be interested in other methods that people may use.
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