Cleaning up sound

So let me get this clear. You want Hollywood quality from your recording? There is a reason why Hollywood does it with the boom operators, microphones and such.

I say take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

It'll probably be easier and cheaper to reshoot.

If you want a more civil response, ask APE how much he'd charge to fix what you're asking to get fixed. Don't be scared though, you can probably get a 5% discount if you ask nicely (and the 5% is likely to be more than your entire budget).

I never mentioned Hollywood quality? I just wanted to know if there was a way to clear up my sound. And really? Reshoot? As if. Like I said, I'm a student. I don't have the time to do that.

If anyone else can actually help with my question, it would be greatly appreciated

Many people here recommend Audacity, FREE! http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I don't care for it myself and prefer to use Free Audio Editor, which serves my basic meatNtaters audio needs. http://www.free-audio-editor.com/

Whatever "rubbish" in the background is compromsing the take can sometimes be reduced through monkeying aound with hi/lo/band pass filters.

GL!

You get to choose 2 out of 3: Good, cheap, fast.

You've got yourself into a pickle. By the sounds of it, you (probably unknowingly) chose cheap and quick. You can spend 10 times the time would have taken to record it properly by attempting to fix it in post and realize that you're not going to get the quality, even with someone who knows how to fix it and has the tools, especially considering your budget and time restrictions.

Yes, you can reduce the buzzing. Get it in your audio software, recognize the pattern of the noise you're trying to remove and remove it. The only problem, you're likely to remove sounds you also need. I've done it a couple of times and it is a very slow, arduous process and extremely time consuming process, and at the end of the multiple hour session spent trying to fix it, you find out the end result is unusable.

Who knows, you could be lucky that the buzzing has a completely different frequency to everything else you're recording.

No pieces of software that I've used for this is free, or cheap for that matter so I have no suggestions for you in that regard.

EndStateProductions said:

Basically I made my first short without a boom pole and used the built in audio recorders on the cameras due to budget restraints.

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You did it backwards then! The reason filmmakers use boom poles and shotgun mics is because it's cheaper, any other method of achieving decent sound quality is more expensive.

Your post is impossible to answer, without knowing exactly what is wrong with the recordings and the final quality you need to achieve. You should be aware that cleaning dialogue is a skilled task, requiring several high quality tools. Even the most skilled mixers, with many thousands of dollars worth of specialist audio cleaning/restoration tools often can't achieve acceptable quality, which is why ADR exists and is used so frequently in feature films. As a general rule, in camera audio is of such poor quality that it almost always falls into the category of "unusable". This is because even with the best tools money can buy (certainly nowhere even close to free!) the extreme settings required to reduce the noise to acceptable levels causes artefacts which are themselves unacceptable.

Probably the best/easiest option would be sweetie's advice and to re-shoot, although obviously to record the sound properly on the re-shoot! Your other option is ADR but that will probably take just as long as re-shooting if the actors aren't skilled at recording ADR and you don't have the knowledge/equipment to process the ADR.

EndStateProductions said:

Reshoot? As if. Like I said, I'm a student. I don't have the time to do that.

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Doesn't matter if you're a student, a world famous director or anyone inbetween, no one has the time or money to re-shoot! Which is why it's so important to record production sound properly in the first place. If I were you, I would chalk this one up to a valuable learning experience and move on to your next film, with the appreciation that just getting a decent image during filming is not enough, that's just photography, not film making!

G

Oh how lucky IndieTalk is to have AudioPostExpert and Alcove Audio floating around.

deleted!

Well, there you have it.

The cheapest way is, as has been mentioned, getting it right in the first place.

1 - Get the mic(s) off of the camera (or actually get a proper production sound mic), put it on the end of a boom-pole, and have it wielded by someone who has - at the very least - some idea of what they should be doing.

2 - Select a quiet location.

3 - Prepare the set by eliminating as many sources of noise as possible, such as appliances, lights (flourescents are a major PITA), computers, cell phones/PDAs/tablets, etc., HVAC and the like.

4 - Isolate and treat the set sonically by using sound blankets or other sound absorbing items to mitigate sound reflections.

There is a lot more, but as you can see you have to PLAN to get solid sound.

Even in the best of circumstances there will be audio problems. Possible solutions are:

1- Selecting alternative dialog takes that have less noise. This takes tremendous editing skills to achieve visually undetectable edits, or the use of softwares like Vocalign. Even the best dialog editors will have to use both.

2 - Using various forms of EQ. A Low Pass filter will help to control hiss, a High Pass filter will help to control rumble, a Notch Filter can be used to target specific frequencies.

3 - Specific Noise Reduction (NR) programs and softwares, such as iZotope RX2 (really excellent - $300 for RX2, RX2 Advanced is $1,200) and the "big guns" like Waves, Sonnox and Cedar Systems (like the man said, if you have to ask, you can't afford it...). BTW, iZotope recently released Music & Speech Cleaner for $40, but I have no idea if it is any good.


The problem is akin to taking the cherry out of a Cherry Coke. You can, but it's not really worth the effort; just don't put the cherry in the Coke in the first place. I am fully aware not putting the noise in the production audio is much different situation, but the principle applies.


I don't think that the demo version of RX2 is compatible Audacity, so you are probably stuck with using EQ tricks. Oh, one last issue, you really need some decent speakers (and preferably a treated listening environment) so you can accurately hearing what is going on during the sonic surgery.

AudioPostExpert said:

You haven't done your homework and made a fundamental error in your filmmaking which probably can't be fixed to any better a standard than a youtube home video and somehow that gives you the right to be snarky?

If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at yourself for making the incorrect assumption that in camera audio would be good enough or that it could be "fixed in post". Learn and move on but don't take it out on others, that's just childish and won't get you any closer to making a watchable film!

G

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You've aimed that at the wrong person! I'm simply singing your praises - I've read a few of your replies to other topics and you certainly know your stuff. I'm not the OP!

Genuinely wasn't sarcasm either, myself and many others appreciate all of the valuable information re audio you provide.

Whoops, my apologies, I mis-read AND mis-interpreted, I'll edit the post!

G

Sweetie said:

I say take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

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Hooray for Aliens fans!

2001 Productions said:

Hooray for Aliens fans!

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^^^

I wouldn't re-shoot. I would simply use ADR. It will be a task but it can be done. My last short had completely unusable sound from the shoot, so I had my actors come in and re-do every line. It made a HUGE difference.

Here's the finished product. Far from perfect but definitely usable...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZzwGCG1zxA

A good noise reduction software (hiss, rumble etc, but not for repairing so much) is Voxengo's Redunoise. It's about $100.
RX2 is more advanced and does more diverse things I think... I haven't tested RX though.

Thank you for your suggestions. I think i will begin with looking at Audacity (some experience with editing music on there), and if not i will then possibly have to re-record every line of the film. I don't have the time to re-shoot, nor do i have the finances to pay for any audio editing software, but thanks again for all your suggestions

I don't know why everyone loves Audacity so much. Editing with it is destructive - add an effect and it automatically re-renders it rather than just filtering the audio with the effect like a professional DAW would (Digital Audio Workstation).
I understand that you're a student, but there are other platforms out there that will cause you less stress and give you better results for a minimal cost.

Don't stop reading at the word "cost".

REAPER has a 60 day "unlimited" and free trial period. You can use it fully for 60 days before you have to buy it, including all its great plugins such as "ReaFir" which can act as a noise reduction plugin! *hint hint*.

It's a much better option since REAPER is NON-destructive, it works by, metaphorically speaking, filtering the audio rather than replacing it. This means you have a much more flexible work-flow.
http://reaper.fm

- Install 32 or 64 bit REAPER (the one appropriate for your OS)
- Open REAPER and set up your input/output
- Import your audio (just drag and drop!)
- Click on the grey FX button on the left of the new audio track and tyoe "ReaFir" in the FX search box. Double click to open it.
You now have an "FX chain" starting with ReaFir.

- Select the following settings:
Points: Precise
Mode: Subtract
FFT Size: 8192 (just to get you started)
Check "Automatically build noise profile"

Now find a part of your audio with no speach, just background noise. You need at least 3 seconds worth, more is better.
Hit Play (space bar does it). Let it analyse your audio for a bit then hit space again to stop. Uncheck "Automatically build noise profile".

TADAA

Now to fine-tune it you need to work with EQ (seach for "ReaEQ" and open it below ReaFir in the FX chain) and the FFT size - 8000, 4000, 16000... Find the one that works for you, for me it varies.

This will not give you "professional" results, but it will be better than something full of noise and hum.