what do I dooooooooo? :(

L

LDS

So I filmed a web series (here's bit of advertising. This thread has been brought to you by THE MUSICIAN web series https://www.facebook.com/TheMusicianSeries :cool: )

Anyway... so I filmed that and in some scenes the audio is just CRAP cuz it was filmed outdoors with f..ing wind and f...ing planes above our intelligent heads

What do I do...? :( I can't reduce the sound any more (I am not a sound editor, I use audiacity and the more I use it the more it sounds like we're robots)

I can't let this project to sound shit... and a lot of scenes they sound shit... how to remove shit audio without losing quality, are there any Hollywood feature film sound editors on here? lol :D :cool:

Im tired of failing cuz of f-ing sound! :grumpy:
 
Audio noise reduction is a very tedious, pain-staking process - even for guys like APE and myself. At the well-budgeted level it's usually handled in pre-dubs, most probably be using a very high end Pro Tools system, which means the mixer can put multiple NR plug-ins (in addition to EQ, etc.) on each channel.

You absolutely "can't let this project to sound shit," so you'll need to retain someone who knows what they are doing. You don't have the tools, the training/skills/experience or the "ears" to do this yourself.

And you may have to face the fact that you may have to ADR some of those scenes; hey, guys like APE and me are geniuses, not miracle workers. :D
 
Then you'll have to pay to a professional sound editor to fix that.
And why didn't you think of it in the beginning?
I remember 3 weeks ago we were filming in a city suburb area. We had to spread along almost 200 meters to stop cars and people to enter the area. Moreover, we made sure there were no cats, dogs, or drinking Russians within the area. :)

I'm not a soundman, but as far as I know, planes and wind are not an issue.
 
Inarius said:
planes and wind are not an issue.
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They can be a major issue, most especially when you're a dialog editor.

However, issues with air traffic can be resolved by proper location scouting or/and location management. Wind noise can be curtailed by proper production sound techniques/procedures and gear, like a real blimp.

Rycote-Windshield.jpg
 
Alcove Audio said:
They can be a major issue, most especially when you're a dialog editor.

However, issues with air traffic can be resolved by proper location scouting or/and location management. Wind noise can be curtailed by proper production sound techniques/procedures and gear, like a real blimp.

Rycote-Windshield.jpg
Click to expand...

I've never seen anyone without those things on the mic/boom :blush:
 
sfoster said:
:weird:

I had a big problems with planes the very first shoot I ever did.
Strange to hear this from someone ..
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It somehow turned out that every soundman we filmed with were actually people from the industry, who were sound operators as their job. That's why I never heard of planes making troubles. Helicopters do, planes not.
 
Inarius said:
It somehow turned out that every soundman we filmed with were actually people from the industry, who were sound operators as their job. That's why I never heard of planes making troubles. Helicopters do, planes not.
Click to expand...

Baltimore Washington International airport is a 15 minute drive from my house, so they get lower than cruising altitude around here. I'm sure that played a factor.

Usually not a big deal, but that day we had 3 within a 5 minute span and so one scene kept stopping and restarting for dialogue purposes
 
sfoster said:
Baltimore Washington International airport is a 15 minute drive from my house, so they get lower than cruising altitude around here. I'm sure that played a factor.

Usually not a big deal, but that day we had 3 within a 5 minute span and so one scene kept stopping and restarting for dialogue purposes
Click to expand...

Our biggest problems were people who were coming and shouting, - "Wow!!! Are you shooting a movie?!" :lol:
 
LDS said:
... how to remove shit audio without losing quality?
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Not possible, sorry! The trick is to not loose too much quality and hide/disguise the resultant quality issues.

Inarius said:
Then you'll have to pay to a professional sound editor to fix that.

I'm not a soundman, but as far as I know, planes and wind are not an issue.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's not the Sound Editor's job to do that, it's the Re-recording Mixer's job. I occasionally get sent material to mix which has obviously been edited by someone relatively new to the business and who has applied noise reduction, I usually have to ask them to send me an edit without any NR.

Wind and/or planes are very much an issue. Sometimes we can reduce and disguise it enough (to make ourselves look like geniuses!), other times there's nothing which can be done. Quite a few years ago I was working on a film and was present for the shooting of a scene of an aristocratic Victorian garden party, including a live military band and all the trimmings. Quite a complex setup with 20+ channels of location sound. Unfortunately it was filmed in Richmond (London) which is just a bit too close to one of the world's busiest airports (Heathrow). It wasn't a big budget film, under $2m, but being a Victorian period piece there wasn't much we could do in post to disguise the sound of a 747 passing overhead every 26secs! Every bit of audio recorded that day had to be dumped and the whole thing, including the band, had to be re-recorded/ADR'ed, it wasn't easy or cheap!!

LDS said:
What do I do...? :( I can't reduce the sound any more (I am not a sound editor, I use audiacity and the more I use it the more it sounds like we're robots)
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Why don't you upload a minute or so of your footage so we can have a listen and tell you if it's salvageable or if ADR is going to be the only realistic option.

G
 
dahwws said:
Good idea, but to me it sounds like he'll definitely have to do ADR.
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ADR is always a last resort, production is much preferable to ADR, especially at the low/no/mini/micro budget indie level. If it's possible to fix the production sound, that's the way a project should go.
 
Alcove Audio said:
They can be a major issue, most especially when you're a dialog editor.

However, issues with air traffic can be resolved by proper location scouting or/and location management.
Click to expand...

I live in Central London... We filmed in South London... PLANES are EVERYWHERE above London, there is no such place as "quiet" place in London, London has 4 air ports on each side, even in the city. Planes are 24 fucking 7 lol

Inarius said:
I'm not a soundman, but as far as I know, planes and wind are not an issue.
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erm... lol, no comment :weird:

Inarius said:
T
And why didn't you think of it in the beginning?
I remember 3 weeks ago we were filming in a city suburb area. We had to spread along almost 200 meters to stop cars and people to enter the area. Moreover, we made sure there were no cats, dogs, or drinking Russians within the area. :)

I'm not a soundman, but as far as I know, planes and wind are not an issue.
Click to expand...

again, i was not able to stop planes and wind. I don't have £1000's for pro equiptment (or £100's for sound guy a day) - I filmed in 5 days with NO money. :(




anyway... I think dubbing is the only thing I can do - i hate that shit :grumpy:

but the only thing that keeps me "positive" is that even Jude Law had to do dubbing and it looks shit in this short film :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87B1tz3KdOg
 
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dahwws said:
Good idea, but to me it sounds like he'll definitely have to do ADR.
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You haven't heard it, so like the rest of us you're just guessing. As Alcove rightly stated, ADR should be a last resort as explained below ...

LDS said:
anyway... I think dubbing is the only thing I can do - i hate that shit :grumpy:
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Unfortunately, most actors and directors hate ADR. This pretty much always leads to the self fulfilling prophesy of ADR solving the technical issue of noise in the production sound but at the cost of the emotion/dramatic impact of the production dialogue. Even with highly experienced, talented, professional actors, the ADR performance rarely if ever matches the original filmed performance. For this reason alone, regardless of the fact that you also hate it, you should do whatever you can to avoid ADR, obviously in pre-production and during filming but also in post. It seems to me that you're effectively doing the same as dahwwns, you haven't yet exhausted the alternatives to ADR. It maybe that Alcove or I can suggest a "good enuf" option that you can do yourself, maybe it will require specialist tools and experience but Alcove or I could do it for a mutually acceptable fee or maybe ADR is your only option. But at this stage you don't know for sure and therefore have not exhausted all the potential options!

G
 
I've used Adobe Audition to great effect for cleaning up bad dialogue recordings. EQ can go a long way. Also, Audition has tools like Auto Heal and Spectral View that let you "erase" noises the way you might erase a shape or color in Photoshop. I have NO idea how it works, just that it does. My wife, the audiobook narrator, hipped me to it and now it's my film-related digital audio workstation of choice, not least of all because of the automatic integration with Premiere.
 
LDS said:
erm... lol, no comment :weird:
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This is what one sound operator said to me when I asked him about wind and planes, that they are not an issue. He used that blimp. And yes, he was a hired professional, so I guess he knew what to do about that. I didn't go into details with it.
 
I was speaking with a pro director with 20 years experience of stuff everyone on here would know who shot an amazing short... in the car park of Heathrow airport. He'd hired the car park.

He had a pro sound crew, pro sound engineers - the whole nine yards. And yes, softies everywhere.

They performed noise reduction in post, apparently without ADR. No idea how they did that but it was as clean as a whistle in the cinema and an amazingly good short.

Think the whole short cost him less than 15 grand (just over $22k USD) so wasn't a huge budget...
 
Inarius said:
This is what one sound operator said to me when I asked him about wind and planes, that they are not an issue. He used that blimp. And yes, he was a hired professional, so I guess he knew what to do about that. I didn't go into details with it.
Click to expand...

As Gorillaonabike states, extreme conditions can be overcome with well equipped, experienced pros, good planning, etc. However, wind and/or plane noise is NEVER "not an issue", they are ALWAYS an issue, albeit an issue which can (sometimes) be solved without the need for ADR.

So, the information you have been given is definitely incorrect, even more so at the lo/no budget level where highly equipped, high quality audio post pros are commonly not an option. Remember, there are world class professionals, incompetent professionals, large numbers of professionals somewhere between these two extremes and even some who are barely professional at all but like to make out they're experts!

G
 
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