Cutting out background noise « Videomaker Community Forums

nobody
Member

Hi,

I have been asked to cut out the background noise (people chatting) from some footage (not shot by me I might add) and was wondering if you could recommend some software?

I am currently using Pinnacle Edition Pro, but it doesn't really seem capable.

What do you think? Should I just give up and tell them to hire me to shoot it next time?

Sarah

Posted 8 years ago #
nileo
Member

Well first of all, it would help to know the duration of the shot. If it is short dialog you might consider doing voiceovers. If it is long, however, then u got a problem.

I don't know a ton about which sound editing software to use and it depends on what your willing to put it.

I am using Adobe Premiere 6.0 and it has a few helpful audio filters. It has helped me cut out background noises such as talking, music, the whole works. If the background noises are loud, it should pretty much be impossible to filter them without putting money into audio editing software.

You might consider using Sony's Vegas or Adobe audition which might come in handy for later productions.

Hope that helped!

Posted 8 years ago #
nobody
Member

It used to be that filtering of sound was only available through the use of an equalizer - emphasize certain frequencies and cut others. A minimal solution that seldom worked. For years this was all that was available unless someone actually worked with each "frame" of sound and hand deleted the frequencies of the "noise."

Nowadays, there are inexpensive (and expensive) software programs that can delete any particular noise or sound. Hum or cam noise would be a good example. If any particular "noise" can be isolated, then it can be removed from a scene or from a whole movie. But you must think on this process and what it does. For instance, I really wanted to get rid of a baby crying from a concert I recorded. I was able to isolate it when there was no music playing, but applying this noise deletion to a real shot cut out every frequency that the cry had. In other words, almost all high frequency sound was lost.

Now if you take this scenario to the afore-mentioned example, the "noise" is voice. Cutting out voice sounds does just that - it cuts out all voice frequencies more or less. So it won't work.

Now if you have an old scratchy record and want to re-record it digitally without the scratch or pop, it works.

Posted 8 years ago #
Joshua
Member

I wouldn't recommend a voice over. Anyone will be able to tell that it was fixed in post. Why? You will have no back ground noise. How did they shoot the scene? Was it with two mics or just the camera mic?
If they used two mics going into two channels this will help you alot. Go into your capture setting and capture audio as channel one and two. Then lower the channel that is picking up more of the backgroun noise. Keep it there just make the dialouge more dominate.
If they used the camera mic you might have to tell them to just re-shoot it. Try to find a quieter place and use headphones so they can tell what they are picking up.

Posted 8 years ago #