helping audio

[Don Bloom]

I’ll assume from your post that you did not have a wireless on the groom.

Since a shotgun is not the idea thing in any situation unless its boomed and within a couple of feet of the subject AND most churchs do have an echo AND you were probably 25 feet or more away from the B&G I can understand the problem you’re going thru right now.

Actually a Noise Reduction program is a great thing to have but I don’t believe this is what you need at this time. First you need to bring up the levels of the B&G. You can split the audio track at the vows and do any number of things to get you started but remember, whatever you do WILL bring up the floor noise of the mic.
Here goes; 1) after splitting the clip open NON REALTIME FX and go to VOLUME-raise it up to about 5. it will become TAKE 2-now drop it on your timeline and put in a volume envelope and raise it to about +3. You will probably now be able to at least hear the vows, along with lots of hiss and noise. Don’t cry yet, open NON-REAL TIME FX again and for that clip apply the TRACK EQ. Use the number 1 circle and pull all the way down and start moving it to the right until the pitch of the voice starts to change then back off a bit. That will at least knock down much of the floor noise and give you something you can work with.
Here’s the real trick though.Don’t try to take it all out in 1 pass. Render the new improved clip and (wav) and go thru the process again. Little bites are better than 1 big giant chomp cause if its not right you still have a close starting point.
I doubt you’ll get it 100% but at you should at least be able to get it close enough that you’ll be able to hear and understand the vows without all the nasty background junk.
Good luck and next time, use a wireless 😉

Don

[Jason Burkhimer]

Thanks Don, sounds like good stuff. Ill give it a try. I had planned on getting a wireless, its just that, this is only my second wedding. My primary projects are surf videos, which are 95% musical soundtrack, and almost never need any sort of detached mic. Do you have any good reccomendations for mics(wireless, shotgun…etc)? What kind of money will I be looking at spending? Thx again Don.

-burk

[Don Bloom]

Personally I like the AT897 for on camera work-not as hot as the ME66. I use on 1 of my 150s and on my JVC5000. As for wireless, I’ve been using a couple of Azden 500Us for a number of years (I use a Sony lav mic though-not the Azden) and I can honestly say I’m quite happy with the results. A lot of guys I know use Sennheiser wireless, some use Lectrosonics (very costly) some use AT’s and a few use AKG. Most of the wireless setups run between $400 and $600 depending on the make and the mic included. The Lectros about $1000 although sometimes you can find them on Ebay for less. The 897 shotgun runs about $250 to 280 depending on where you go to get it.
Regardless of which unit you choose make sure you play with it first before taking it out on the job. Know what it can and can’t do and find out what camera settings to use for the best audio (meaning-AGC or manual with the levels set to a certain setting)
Although it seems like a lot of money if you plan on doing any more weddings or other type of events like a wedding you’ll need to have a wireless. A bride and groom want to hear the words clearly.
Maybe you can find somewhere near you where you can rent a wireless until you can afford to buy it.

Don

[Mike Kujbida]

Jason, try this tip that was on another Vegas forum some time ago. Good luck with it.

Mike

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I split the audio track into separate clips for each speaker, and opened in Sound Forge as take. First I normalised it as the levels were WAY down, then some Eq to kill anything not needed and add some boost at 100Hz and dips at the room resonance. Then used wave hammer at Smooth Compression preset. Saved it back to Vegas, then opened that take in SF as a take again and applied Wave Hammer at Medium Compression preset. Saved that back to Vegas and dragged that take into a new audio track. Then switched on Invert Phase.
Now at this point all you get is rubbish. Slide the track gain down on the highly compressed track, I found a sweet spot at around -12dB but it varied from speaker to speaker.

1. Select All, then Copy the audio.
2. Paste to a new track, invert the waveform, and apply moderate compression.
3. Reduce the new track volume so that a preselected “quiet” area is about 50% of the level of its corresponding area in the original.
4. Paste Mix the new track into the old. Renormalize if necessary.

There should be a noticeable improvement in clarity and echo reduction because you have applied negative feedback to the areas where the echo is most objectionable. Too high a compression or too high level of the feedback track will give a “pumping” effect, however.

I used this trick in Vegas and was amazed how clean I could get it by playing around with the compression release time and threshold adjustments on the alternate track. The release time adjustment was the biggest help in overcoming the acoustics delay and still preserving the proper dynamics in the main audio.

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[Edward Troxel]

Many people in the wedding community have also started using iRivers. You need one that allows an external mic and then you use it like a wireless and just bring the extra audio in separately.

We use an Azden UDR series wireless mic for this purpose.

Edward Troxel

[Jason Burkhimer]

Thanks everybody. All of this info is invaluable.

-burk