Hum in audio

Hello to all,

I have a scene shot in a coffee shop. Humming from the flourescent lights, the refrigerator, cappuccino maker, etc.,... is coming through. I've tried putting the audio through Soundtrack using the Set Noise Print/Noise reduction and the hum is still slightly there. Any suggestions as to what filters to use either in FCP or Soundtrack Pro?

As always, thanks so much!

Peace,
Lisha

If the scene is in a coffee shop, shouldn't you be hearing the coffee shop? I can see the desire to lower the noise of these machines/lights so that they don't detract from the dialog, but taking them out all together might be impossible. The best thing from a production standpoint (moot point I know) is to turn off the machines during the dialog portions so that you have the cleanest dialog, and then adding the sound back in post so you can control how loud it is.

Since it's already shot, and assuming that you can't reshoot, you can try another audio program. Soundtrack Pro is bound to be better than any of the stock FCP filters, and if you aren't getting the results you need with that, you could try SoundSoap, or some other audio manipulation program. Of course, that's more money.

It might be cheaper to kill the audio all together and have the actors record ADR tracks depending on how much you paid them (or if ). Cheaper perhaps, but more difficult and painstaking.

Unfortunately for you, there are rarely any easy answers regarding audio. It's sad how large a segment of filmmakers there is (professionals and non) that treat audio as an afterthought. It was hardly even covered by my professors in college. As an editor I've always maintained that audio is 60% of the final product, more important even than the picture. Because with most films, you could close your eyes and still get the full story, but the same cannot be said of those same films on mute.

Just my 2 cents.

Andy

Thanks Andy. I agree with you completely. Believe me, on my own productions audio is a priority! I edit the television show African American Short Films and one of the films accepted to the show has sections of poor audio. I'm trying to clean it up before we broadcast it around the U.S. :-) I've gotten rid of most of it, but I don't want the television sets of our viewers humming while they are watching the show.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Lisha
www.badamitv.com

They hum because they don't know the words.

Rrrrrroooom. Tish!

This may be where SoundSoap is the best bet. It doesn't cost that much and in this partucular instance, it may do a lot of good. There are "hum" filters in there that are very good at sucking out 60, 180 and all the other harmoincs and multiples of the power line.

The problem with a live room like you have is the sounds are not pure like a low-pitched flute. They're caused by vibrating metal panels and old compressor motor windings, all of which are rich in harmonics like a good cello. If you took out the main note that the cello was playing and listened to the result, most of the rich lush cello sound would still be there.

That's your problem. If you have an old enough refrigerator, some of the noises it makes could be made with the human voice and no software package will ever be able to separate them.

Most times the audio people aren't important until we're not there.

Koz