Removing cicada noise.

[Michael Sacci]

Have you tried SoundTrack Pro, you have to find the balance between the noise reduction and the quality of the vocals. (which you should be able to vary in Soundsoap also)

[Mark Raudonis]

Agree with Michael.

The trick is to EQ before you start noise reduction. Try to find the frequency band that MOSTLY eliminates the unwanted sound, THEN apply the noise reduction. SOUND TRK PRO’s stuff works pretty well, but go easy on it. In this case, less is more. You’re never going to get rid of the bugs completely, but at least you can minimize their impact.

Applying the compressor limiter can help too since it will drop most of the Non dialogue sound.

If you have the budget, take the tracks to an audio post house and let them do their magic. Successful noise reduction comes from approaching the problem many different ways in the proper order. Rough EQ. Compressing/noise gate. And never underestimate plain old manual track editing to cut OUT the worst of it.

Good luck.

mark

[John Fishback]

One noise print won’t work throughout the scene. Every time the character of the bkg noise changes, you need to take a new noise print, apply noise reduction to that section and move on. Playing with the noise threshold and reduction controls, work to achieve the balance you want.

John

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