[Don]

The problem is:

A shoot in an auditoreum. Camera mics was all that was available. I had to shoot from the rear of the room.

The room ambient is -25 to -30 dB, all the time. The speakers at the podium were apparently alergic to microphones. Their level is typically -15 to -20 dB. At times, there are cheers from the audience, to 0 dB.

I plan to steeply compress the track to around -15, to lower the peaks of the cheers. Then I want to expand, with a threshold of about -20. The idea is lower the room ambient and raise the speakers.

Any thoughts?

[Don]

I would like to add that it’s the best $35 an editor can spend and I don’t get a DIME from it! Great book, Richard. Mine has been used so much the spine is broken. p.s. I use Vegas with PS.

[Don]

You guys have given me some ideas…. I DO have Sound Forge and N.R., but I wasn’t thinking of what I might do with those. I suppose I could capture a sample of his voice and try to get NR to reduce it from her track. Actually, I think I would have to us it to get rid of her, invert what’s left and add back in to get rid of his voice, etc., etc.

I have tried EQ to split him from her in her track. They’re in unison, so the root note is the same. All I’ve been able to do with EQ is make either him, her or both sound really crappy. And they’re STILL not separated, even with that.

I hadn’t thought about grabbing a clean note from her and replacing a piece of her track with that. I know that’ll work, but man is that going to be tedious.

Thanks for the thoughts, guys. I’ll work on it some more.
-Don