Eliminating background noise

What's up, all?

FCP5

I've got some background TV noise playing during a doc interview. Camera was pointed at subject but the TV is still pretty loud.

Any suggestions on lowering or drowning out the noise?

Please tell me it's not in the same room.

If so, you're in trouble. TV noises would involve a wide frequency of sounds, such as music and voices, which would be very hard to get rid of without killing your interview sound as well. Your best shot might be a Noise Gate, which will attempt to remove sounds below a certain volume. Fire your sound recordist.

If the TV is in the next room, then you can try a High Pass filter. Noises that penetrate through walls would mostly be in the low frequencies.

whne you say TV noise are you talking about people talking from the TV or the high pitch hiss noise that a tv makes when on?

I don't think there is any graceful way to rescue this shoot, see Mok.

Make sure the new recordist uses large padded headphones to quality control the recording as it's being made.

Sometimes you can get around very difficult recording situations by using a lavalier (chest mounted) microphone or a boom with a very directional microphone.

Never use the little mic on the top of the camera.

Koz



Post Edited (04-17-06 09:36)

The TV is in the same room, and yes, it is VOICES from some TV show.

Fire the recordist after you shoot them.

Then break it to the producer you have to reshoot or not use that segment.

Koz

Shoot the guy who recorded this in the belly, because I hear that's the most painful. Then shoot the tv. Then say something meaningful and clever like, "Sorry, I didn't mean to shoot the TV also. Oh, I believe you said something similar." Then fire him.

Next time you shoot, insist that you listen through the headphones for at least one take.

To fix this scene, blur out the interviewee, rerecord the voice yourself, tweak it with a sound program, and put a "witness protection" chiron on the bottom. It may not fit with your subject matter, but it's the best you can do.

Oh yes. Witness Protection overlay and VoCorder effect. Good idea.

Koz

MikeDerk's on to something. Contact the talent / interviewee, loop the VO & add new room tone / nat sound.

I hate Monday Morning Quarterbacking...but your recordist is an idiot for not picking this up while you were shooting. You won't be using him again, I'll bet (unless it was your nephew or something).

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Eric,

I know we're all being a bit blunt with our notes. We'd all be lying if we hadn't learned our lessons with sound ourselves by overlooking something in the past.

It's become a quest of mine: to eliminate bad sound. I was preaching this once to a room full of new filmmakers, and someone came up to me later and said, "Are you the [speaker] who had sound problems?"

I wanted to scream and say "No! I'm the one who never has sound problems!" It made me feel like he'd misinterpreted what I'd said, assumed I'd been able to fix the problems in the film he'd seen, and walked away without learning a lesson.

Sound is unforgiving, as you've learned. Do your best with this -- even if it's this:
1. Remove all the TV sound, and accept the bad sound gracefully that will result in your speaker's voice.
2. Add subtitles to clarify what's being said.

If you can rerecord (the audio, like grafic joe said), great. If you can't, lesson learned.

Mike

I wouldn't be so hard on the shooter.

When I was a kid new in radio, I had a chance to get a 2-minute interview with Fred Friendly towards the end of his life, on his way out of a speaking engagement. Obviously there was no time or place to set up an acoustic perfect situation. And I will always treasure that experience - even with some crowd noise in the background! But I held the mic in the 6-8 inch range and he was very audible, and the crowd noise gave the interview life and dimension and realism.

There are a variety of audio filters in FCP can can help you de-emphasize and notch out certain frequencies. I've been doing audio since 1968... it is a trial and error experience.

Also, what you hear in headphones might be different than what you hear played back through consumer TV sets.



Independent photographer, film maker and Producer. In the wonderful UK.