Audio miracle?! at DVinfo.net

Guillermo Ibanez · January 20th, 2011, 08:39 AM

Hi guys,

During the ceremony of a wedding that I filmed recently, i put a lavalier/radio mic on the groom's jacket. I'm not entirely sure why but I think the church's audio system caused interferences and at the end I was left with pretty much unusable audio. This is the first time that something like this has happened to me and I film tens of weddings a year.
I need to work with the audio from the onboard mic in the camera which obviously is all echoy, low and bad quality. I'm perfectly aware of the small possibilities to improve it but i'd like to, at least, make it a bit better than what it is at the moment.
what are the processes that I should use? I use Adobe Soundbooth.

thanks in advance!

Gary Brun · January 21st, 2011, 06:19 AM

I use Izotope RX.
I think you can download a free trial.

Send me a small part of your audio... my email is in my profile and I can take a look for you if you like?

Claire Buckley · January 21st, 2011, 10:44 AM

Hi Guillermo.

It's very possible your radio mic and the house mic were indeed operating on the same frequency or within the sideband limits. Often what happens is the mic will be okay at the time you rigged, but when groom and celebrant come close to each other the old diversity don't know which way to... diverse - the result is often an overloaded and clipped reception of the other's mic - especially if the church has set their transmitter to the highest carrier level as often they do (referring to my experience using the Senheiser radio mic dual receiver system).

Not much you can do with it as you can't recover distortions as a result of peak clipping no matter what the audio software packages tell you.

All you can do, as you state, is to fall back on your on-camera audio. As to getting rid of the the loose off mic sound (the echoey stuff as you say) you'll have to be pretty skilled in the art of audio expansion and gating to get it anywhere near clean - but, I haven't heard your audio, so Gary B might be able to help.

Separating out the usable audio from the noise floor means stretching the level out beyond a designated threshold (expansion) above the noise floor; there will be audible "gating" depending upon the track and your attack and decay time settings. But you won't know if you don't try, but don't hold your breath.

Hope it works out for you.

:)

Guillermo Ibanez · January 21st, 2011, 11:14 AM

yeah, i think that's exactly what happened i think, as it was perfectly fine while i was testing before the ceremony. i only realized once it had finished, stupid me!
Anyway, as you say I'l have to work with what I have which is not much as the cameras where not that close to the 'action'

Gary - thanks mate, i just sent you an email.

cheers

Laurence Janus · January 21st, 2011, 11:21 AM

Have you considered ADR?

January 20th, 2011, 08:39 AM	#1
Guillermo Ibanez Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 111	Audio miracle?! Hi guys, During the ceremony of a wedding that I filmed recently, i put a lavalier/radio mic on the groom's jacket. I'm not entirely sure why but I think the church's audio system caused interferences and at the end I was left with pretty much unusable audio. This is the first time that something like this has happened to me and I film tens of weddings a year. I need to work with the audio from the onboard mic in the camera which obviously is all echoy, low and bad quality. I'm perfectly aware of the small possibilities to improve it but i'd like to, at least, make it a bit better than what it is at the moment. what are the processes that I should use? I use Adobe Soundbooth. thanks in advance!

January 21st, 2011, 06:19 AM	#2
Gary Brun Major Player Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Kråkstad Norway. Posts: 229	I use Izotope RX. I think you can download a free trial. Send me a small part of your audio... my email is in my profile and I can take a look for you if you like? __________________ http://www.mlotv.com

January 21st, 2011, 10:44 AM	#3
Claire Buckley Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: UK Posts: 176	Hi Guillermo. It's very possible your radio mic and the house mic were indeed operating on the same frequency or within the sideband limits. Often what happens is the mic will be okay at the time you rigged, but when groom and celebrant come close to each other the old diversity don't know which way to... diverse - the result is often an overloaded and clipped reception of the other's mic - especially if the church has set their transmitter to the highest carrier level as often they do (referring to my experience using the Senheiser radio mic dual receiver system). Not much you can do with it as you can't recover distortions as a result of peak clipping no matter what the audio software packages tell you. All you can do, as you state, is to fall back on your on-camera audio. As to getting rid of the the loose off mic sound (the echoey stuff as you say) you'll have to be pretty skilled in the art of audio expansion and gating to get it anywhere near clean - but, I haven't heard your audio, so Gary B might be able to help. Separating out the usable audio from the noise floor means stretching the level out beyond a designated threshold (expansion) above the noise floor; there will be audible "gating" depending upon the track and your attack and decay time settings. But you won't know if you don't try, but don't hold your breath. Hope it works out for you. :) __________________ Women don't hit harder, they just hit lower!

January 21st, 2011, 11:21 AM	#5
Laurence Janus Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Kyoto, Japan Posts: 139	Have you considered ADR? __________________ SONY α77 :: Panasonic X900M :: Sony DSR-PD170P :: Miller DS5 :: Premiere Pro 2.0 :: Cineform NeoScene

January 21st, 2011, 11:14 AM	#4
Guillermo Ibanez Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 111	yeah, i think that's exactly what happened i think, as it was perfectly fine while i was testing before the ceremony. i only realized once it had finished, stupid me! Anyway, as you say I'l have to work with what I have which is not much as the cameras where not that close to the 'action' Gary - thanks mate, i just sent you an email. cheers