HELP! Horrible audio! Is "Noise Reduction2.0" the answer?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 7/1/2003, 12:37 PM
I've done a search and could not find an answer.

To make a long story short, I have a *serious* audio track problem (in Vegas 4.0). Out of 12 persons being video tapes, this on older gentleman spoke directly into the "hidden" microphone in such a way that nearly every word pops with his breath (even sometimes without his speaking, he breaths on the mic, causing it to pop). This is part of a memorial service for a young man who drowned. This is his grandfather speaking. I can't very well edit him out, but the sound is horrible.

Will/Can Noise Reduction 2.0 fix this problem, or at least minimize it? I've tried using NR 2.0, but I am not an audio person. (I can't figure this application out at all.) That being the case, I have always been extremely careful when recording the audio portion. Well, the odds have caught up to me. Any help and/or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Jay

Comments

MJhig wrote on 7/1/2003, 1:02 PM
Sorry but while NR 2.0 is an excellent tool, it's not for this. NR 2.0 is best on continuous noise.

For your problem I would suggest SF Multi-band Dynamics and experiment with the "Reduce loud plosives" preset (comes with Sound Forge) either by itself or together in a chain with step 1, or/and if you have another brand Multi-band compressor...

1.) Use SF Track EQ to find the most offending frequencies using the narrowest band possible and sweep (move up and down the freq. spectrum) with the gain cut (say - 6 dB) while listening carefully. When you here the "pop" diminish note that freq. range and width.

If you don't have any Multi-band maybe the above step will solve it enough.

2.) If you have Multi-band, set up a band with the noted freq. and width, set the compression ratio fairly high, say 30+:1 > attack fairly fast, say 1 ms, the release about 100 ms, then lower the threshold slowly while listening/previewing.

The idea is the cut the freq.s of the offending pop/plosive with the EQ and squash the offending freqs. with the Multi-band compressor which in turn will raise the loudness of the non-offending freqs.

MJ
Jay Gladwell wrote on 7/1/2003, 1:09 PM
MJ, would you please contact me at: jay[at]gooddogproductions[dot]com? I'd like to ask you a question... privately. Thanks!
PeterVred wrote on 7/2/2003, 11:02 AM
If mjhig's advice is too complicated for you, you can get rid of them manually either in vegas or soundforge editor.
zoom in, highlight the "pop" spike, and use Reduce Volume tool, or just scrub the peak down. It's a long and involved process if you have tons of pops, but it will sound very natural when you are done.

Pete
roger_74 wrote on 7/2/2003, 11:05 AM
If it's just short spikes Noise Reduction 2.0 will do a great job.