Audio hum

I'm editing some poor quality footage with a terrible hum on all of the audio. Any tips on how to reduce the annoying hum. What audio filter is best to use to dull this agitating noise. Using FCP 5.0, Powerbook G4, OSX.

There is no real good way to remove a loud hum, but if the hum is low in the background you might be able to use an EQ and kill the range of that frequence the hum is using?

Tough to remove hum. You might also try Soudtraclk Pro to see if it will identify that hum and remove it. That would be much easier than an EQ.

We're jostling with this right now, but in general, the best results are obtained by finding a software package that can be shown a brief "clean" track with no talking on it. The package analyzes the "room tone" (or hum in this case) and then tries to subtract it from the show while people are talking.

Almost all high-end audio programs have a tool to do this and some low-end ones as well. The good ones have tuning tools that let you apply the effect gracefully. In my personal audio program, it's: --Transform, Noise Reduction. It's very much a violin. In the right hands....

It can do a shockingly good job if the trash and the talent voice are far enough apart. If they're not, you lose. Trying to remove rain, waterfall, gentle air conditioning duct noise, or general complex traffic noise is impossible. Those all have sounds that are the same as the sounds the human voice makes and you can't separate them.

"I wandered outside in the cold, driving rain and heard the wind whisper to me the name of the murderer." If the wind got that close to the human voice, you will never be able to separate it from an actual voice. They're too close.

By the way, people keep complaining about hum assuming it's at the musical pitch of the stuff coming out of the wall socket. That stuff is almost inaudible and is a snap to eliminate with very cheap tools. No, what happens is you get the garbage generated by lamp dimmers, electric motors, and bad computer switching power supplies. That stuff is highly complex and very clearly audible.

By the time you get to "buzz" in your sound track, it's reshoot or ADR time.

I'm assuming you're trying to rescue a human voice talking. If they're singing or it's a music track, it's pretty much hopeless. The best you can do is a gargly, bubbling voice track like in a police investigation.

Koz

i have my noise reduction workflow in the FAQ

<<<i have my noise reduction workflow in the FAQ>>>

...which you can get to easily by clicking......?

Koz

you can get to easily bly clicking this:

[www.lafcpug.org]

im just under jim perry