Adobe Audition 1.5..taking our background noise?

[Lisa Bennett]

In a recent videotaped interview I was not able to have a soundproof area to work within. There are a few spots with a barking dog, a plane and from time to time a few cars.

I have Adobe Audition 1.5 and would like to know the easiest way to filter out this noise, if possible.

Sound is a specialty and an area that I do not claim to be an expert. But, hopefully I can gleen info from this forum to help solve some of the problem.

Not all of the shots with the noise problem are of major importance. I'll edit and use voice overs in some areas that will be a great fix but not always.

If you have some input or pointers, please send them my way.

Thank you
Lisa

[Bill Mecca]

Lisa,

If you can isolate some of the sound you can highlight that, and use it as the sample (alt+N) for the noise reduction effect, you might have to tinker with it a bit as it the frequencies of the "noise" overlap the sound you want to keep it can affect it to varying degrees. Capture that sound as the noise sample and then just select the small area where it occurs and apply the noise filter.

Other than that you can try equalizing various frequencies to see if you can reduce the annoying sounds, but that will be mostly trial and error.

[Lisa Bennett]

Thanks Bill for the help. I'll give it a try.

Best,
Lisa

[Lisa Bennett]

Here's a question I have...

Provided the noise problem can be corected, how do I compress the levels so that they are all even across the clip? My talent has some areas where her voice went higher at some points...high enough to be noticable.

I located an online tutorial which mentions a multicompressor but apprently it is only available in the pro version because I have not located it under the effects tab on the 1.5 version.

Once again, thank you,
Lisa

[Ivan Snoeckx]

Hi Lisa,

Here is another tutorial for noise reduction in Adobe Audition.

http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotut...emoval_tut.wmv

[Michael Foo]

Hi Lisa, I use Adobe Audition from time to time. I don't use it extensively because I'm a Mac user and run it in a virtual machine. You may want to consider upgrading to AU 3.0. While I haven't used them, there is a whole set of tools for restoration. Things like Adaptive Noise Reduction, Automatic Phase Correction, click/pop removal, etc. For me it was a worthwhile upgrade for $99.

Michael

[Chris Luker]

Hit f9 and look for the offending sounds... then just use the marquee tool to select them, and hit delete.
Works great for short bursts of crap in the background.

[Petri Kaipiainen]

There are many ways to adjust the amplitude of the audio in Audition 1.5, the "rubber band" is the most accurate tool, down to sample level. You can make very fast short drops in level with that (dog bark, coughs etc.), or adust the narration to a steady level.

Often (always, I should say, on TV) some slight compression is used for the final mix. Something like 1:2 on the top 25 dB range combined with slight rise in total level (3-5 dB) to compensate the drop of peaks.

[Steve Oakley]

compression will bring up the noise floor because you are bringing the good sounds down. a little compression of 1.5:1 or 2:1 with a medium (-27 to -22db ) threshold is a starting place. what you really are asking is to do peak limiting. just push the hot spots down. to do that you need a heavy compression ratio of say 5:1, and a high threshold of -22 or -18.

realistically, you still need to go in and level those peaks for best sound BEFORE trying any other filters. volume levels change compression and apparent EQ. yes, its work, but thats what you get paid for. there is no being lazy with mixing and having a filter to automix it.

now while you might call a plane or dog noise, in audio terms its not. noise is generally a reference to a constant hiss of some sort, rumble, HAVC air handling noise, compressors from refrigerating, line buzz.

to _TRY_ to remove those things, go into spectral view, lasso the area, fade the edge selection, then start doing gradual reductions of 6 to 12 db using the fade effect. don't try to just delete it all out at once. if you do make it go away, chances are you'll then need to fill the area back up with some clean background noise so the blank spot isn't so obvious. note that with the lasso tool you can select not just in time ( L/R ) but also just the select frequencies ( top to bottom ) that those sounds occupy.

I've used audition to remove RF hits on several occasions with stunning results, even on a mic recording a PA feed of a band. I did have to patch areas back up with some surrounding sound. yes it took a while, but thats what separates the pro from the amateur, taking the time it takes to make it right rather then trying to just slap a filter on it and expect the same results.

[Lisa Bennett]

Alot of great information...thanks for all of the help.

Sound isn't my specialty and I really need this info. Now to try and apply it will be a task being I need to get more in-tune with the Adobe 1.5 program. I do hope I can clean up this audio.

I don't need the whole 7 minutes of it. Should I pull in the audio with the video to Adobe and clean the whole piece and then pull it back into my edit program to pick and choose the segments I need? What's the quickest way since I am on a time crunch?

Thank you,
Lisa

[Lisa Bennett]

I was able to isolate one of the sections so far that has a bad noise from the person being interviewed slapping her hand on her knee rather loudly. When adjusting the slider in noise reduction it is cutting into the quality of the clip. I'm still working on making adjustments to it for now.

Another question...my levels are a little low. Should I raise the levels before fixing the problem sections? What's the best way to raise the levels?

Thanks so much!
Lisa