remove crowd/room ambient noise

[David Roth weiss]

Try the noise reduction module in STP. The instructions in the online manual will guise you through it pretty easliy.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Ed Dooley]

Bias SoundSoap or Pro work pretty good too:
https://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundSoap2/
https://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundSoapPro/

Ed

[Alan Okey]

If there’s a distinguishable level difference between the subject’s voice and the background noise (4-6 dB or more), you could try using the expander/noise gate filter. Set the threshold of the filter to kick in whenever the subject is not speaking. Set the gain reduction sparingly or it will end up sounding like a hard gate, cutting in and out and sounding generally nasty. The goal is to reduce the level of the background noise when the subject isn’t speaking without reducing the level of the subject when he/she is speaking. Adjust the threshold and gain reduction until an acceptable result is obtained.

There’s no magic fix for bad audio. If you don’t get good audio to start with, there’s little that you can do to fix it in post with the tools that are currently available. Chalk it up to a hard lesson learned.

Lavalier mics should be up close to the subject’s voice box, within about 4-6 inches from their chin. You might get away with a bit more distance if the mic has a cardioid capsule (as opposed to omnidirectional), but proper placement is key for getting good results.