Adobe Audition Question at DVinfo.net

Jake McGlothlin · September 18th, 2008, 09:23 PM

I have a question for anyone out there who uses Adobe Audition as their sound editor, as I do.

I am currently working on a project that involves a lot of shots of river water, fly fishing and needs a very clear and undisturbed soundtrack of river noise. My problem is this: I had to film some of my shots near a busy road, so I picked up some car sounds in the background.

Is there any way I can filter that car sound out and leave the rest of the audio undisturbed? Perhaps by selecting along a certain freqeuncy or something?

Gareth Watkins · September 19th, 2008, 12:07 AM

Hi there
Not sure how undisturbed your river audio will be but check out this tutorial for reducing background noise...
WVP

Regards
Gareth

Wade Spencer · September 19th, 2008, 07:39 AM

Why not just cut out the parts where the car is? A simple crossfade should seamlessly blend moving water together...I doubt you'd ever be able to tell.

Steve Oakley · September 19th, 2008, 09:42 AM

didn't you record some "room" tone while there ? some lessons are learned the hard way :(

you can find clean sections and use them to patch up the noise areas, or just re-record the sound near a river of about the same size. no one will ever know... as long as you don't record birds that aren't native to the shoot location :)

Jake McGlothlin · September 20th, 2008, 11:13 AM

Steve,

I did record some room noise. I always do that before a shot. Like you said, a lesson learned the hard way. Is there some way I can filter out everything but that room noise?

Paul R Johnson · September 20th, 2008, 11:51 AM

You could use the spectral display to look at how it sounds (shift+F). If you can see the car noise, have a go and draw a masque around it and delete it and see what it sounds like - it could work? I suspect, however, the noise will be too wideband and removing it will leave an audible 'hole' that sounds odd.

I'd probably spend some time making up a long river wild track out of blended snippets, thatr I could use as a complete replacement track.

Jake McGlothlin · September 20th, 2008, 11:59 AM

I think I will have to use a replacement track Paul. I tried to spectal imaging, but it didn't really work. You could really hear the "hole". I have been doing what I can to replace the audio with some from another clip I have and that is working well right now. Thanks for the help.

Steve Oakley · September 20th, 2008, 12:37 PM

instead of deleting a section, you can fade it use the gain effect. when you have to do fixes like this, making several gradual passes usually results in a better clean up.
you can also paste the patches in with fades which should work ok.

the other option might be to ADR it and bring the river tone back in as a loop. might be less work with much better results assuming you can get the talent back, or it must be thier voice. I just ADR'd a scene and used another person's voice simply because this person was only on screen for a minute or two in the entire project

Paul R Johnson · September 20th, 2008, 03:23 PM

Ironically, I've just started editing today's material. A Steam Rally - so loads of classic and vintage cars, military vehicles, horse drawn stuff like stage coaches and highwaymen re-enactments, tractors (how come we have so many American tractors over here?) plus of course steam driven farm machinery and traction engines.

In the main display ring, the PA was pretty annoying, but the gaps were enough (I thought) to give me enough clean sound. Annoyingly - throughout I have an old steam driven carousel in the background playing the same 4 songs, and editing is going to be grim and very time consuming. I guess we talked it up!

September 18th, 2008, 09:23 PM	#1
Jake McGlothlin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bozeman, Montana Posts: 55	Adobe Audition Question I have a question for anyone out there who uses Adobe Audition as their sound editor, as I do. I am currently working on a project that involves a lot of shots of river water, fly fishing and needs a very clear and undisturbed soundtrack of river noise. My problem is this: I had to film some of my shots near a busy road, so I picked up some car sounds in the background. Is there any way I can filter that car sound out and leave the rest of the audio undisturbed? Perhaps by selecting along a certain freqeuncy or something? __________________ “If people don’t occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you’re probably doing something wrong.” -John Gierach

September 20th, 2008, 11:13 AM	#5
Jake McGlothlin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bozeman, Montana Posts: 55	Steve, I did record some room noise. I always do that before a shot. Like you said, a lesson learned the hard way. Is there some way I can filter out everything but that room noise? __________________ “If people don’t occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you’re probably doing something wrong.” -John Gierach

September 20th, 2008, 11:59 AM	#7
Jake McGlothlin Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Bozeman, Montana Posts: 55	I think I will have to use a replacement track Paul. I tried to spectal imaging, but it didn't really work. You could really hear the "hole". I have been doing what I can to replace the audio with some from another clip I have and that is working well right now. Thanks for the help. __________________ “If people don’t occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you’re probably doing something wrong.” -John Gierach

September 19th, 2008, 12:07 AM	#2
Gareth Watkins Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: France Posts: 578	Hi there Not sure how undisturbed your river audio will be but check out this tutorial for reducing background noise... WVP Regards Gareth

September 19th, 2008, 07:39 AM	#3
Wade Spencer Major Player Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Wellsboro, Pa Posts: 285	Why not just cut out the parts where the car is? A simple crossfade should seamlessly blend moving water together...I doubt you'd ever be able to tell.

September 19th, 2008, 09:42 AM	#4
Steve Oakley Trustee Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1,158	didn't you record some "room" tone while there ? some lessons are learned the hard way :( you can find clean sections and use them to patch up the noise areas, or just re-record the sound near a river of about the same size. no one will ever know... as long as you don't record birds that aren't native to the shoot location :)

September 20th, 2008, 11:51 AM	#6
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,045	You could use the spectral display to look at how it sounds (shift+F). If you can see the car noise, have a go and draw a masque around it and delete it and see what it sounds like - it could work? I suspect, however, the noise will be too wideband and removing it will leave an audible 'hole' that sounds odd. I'd probably spend some time making up a long river wild track out of blended snippets, thatr I could use as a complete replacement track.

September 20th, 2008, 12:37 PM	#8
Steve Oakley Trustee Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1,158	instead of deleting a section, you can fade it use the gain effect. when you have to do fixes like this, making several gradual passes usually results in a better clean up. you can also paste the patches in with fades which should work ok. the other option might be to ADR it and bring the river tone back in as a loop. might be less work with much better results assuming you can get the talent back, or it must be thier voice. I just ADR'd a scene and used another person's voice simply because this person was only on screen for a minute or two in the entire project

September 20th, 2008, 03:23 PM	#9
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,045	Ironically, I've just started editing today's material. A Steam Rally - so loads of classic and vintage cars, military vehicles, horse drawn stuff like stage coaches and highwaymen re-enactments, tractors (how come we have so many American tractors over here?) plus of course steam driven farm machinery and traction engines. In the main display ring, the PA was pretty annoying, but the gaps were enough (I thought) to give me enough clean sound. Annoyingly - throughout I have an old steam driven carousel in the background playing the same 4 songs, and editing is going to be grim and very time consuming. I guess we talked it up!