How To Improve My Audio? (In car voices)

JohnAsh wrote on 1/4/2013, 1:12 AM

I am working on a project which is a travelogue from a month-long trip round USA.

Much of the material was taken in a car whilst driving the highways and I am mixing music tracks to help it go along.

Once the music is mixed at a level it is audible, it becomes impossible to hear most what is being said in the car, voices being mixed in with engine and road noise, of course.

I'd welcome any ideas as to how to enhance the voices and make things a bit more audible without dropping the level of the music down to an inaudible level. Currently I'm using VP11. I also have Sound Forge but have not used it.

Thanks.

Comments

BigDuff wrote on 1/4/2013, 6:36 AM

Sometimes you can bring voices/vocals to the front of your mix with a judicious use of eq.

Try giving them a bump between the 2K-5K range.

Duff

musicvid10 wrote on 1/4/2013, 7:21 AM

Improving voices already recorded inside a car is almost impossible. Been there.
Izotope could reduce engine and road noise somewhat, but getting the recording right is better.

You need to mic as close to the mouth as possible with a cardioid.
In an ideal situation I would use something like this:
http://microphonemadness.com/products/mm-psm-directional.htm

JohnAsh wrote on 1/4/2013, 1:49 PM

Thanks for the advice.

wwaag wrote on 1/11/2013, 2:09 PM

JohnAsh

Sounds like we're interested in the same thing. I posted a question on the SF forum and was referred to this thread.

[Link=[http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=846087]

Here was my post.

"I like to do road trip documentaries in which I use a couple of lav mics attached to the visors for recording conversation in addition to the video. The problem is to reduce the road noise while enhancing the vocal portions. My general approach has been to first reduce the low frequency content, apply noise reduction, enhance using some of the Izotope Compressor and EQ presets, and finally normalize to -27db. IMO, the results are pretty bad, especially when the recorded conversation is "soft", i.e. not very loud.

Here is a link to a Dropbox file that contains three 3 sec clips (no voice, male voice, female voice) followed by my attempt at processing.

[Link=https://www.dropbox.com/s/r37g5vk9j9tuj14/road%20noise.wav]

I would greatly appreciate any assistance. Thanks.

wwaag

Incidentally, my general workflow has been to do the main editing in Vegas Pro 12, create takes for each audio event, and then batch process in SF 10."

rraud wrote on 1/12/2013, 9:38 AM

The NR is only marginally better. Unfortunately, excessive NR will produce unpleasant sounding artifacts, so there's a trade-off. If it's not a decent recording to begin with, there are few options in post.
Sounds like a camera mic, which is not a good mic placement for recording dialog... anywhere.
Lavaliere mics would be a much better choice, either on the persons speaking or planted in close proximity to them, for instance on the sun-visors or interior roof. Small boundary mics such as the Sanken Cub are popular for in-car plant mics. In addition having the windows closed will help a lot as are any other thing that can be done to reduce interior noise.

wwaag wrote on 1/12/2013, 11:28 AM

I did use a pair of omnidirectional lav mics attached to the sun visor. Unfortunately for this trip, I recorded the audio using the camera's (an inexpensive Sony CX-160) internal AGC--probably, a big mistake. I just got a pair of noise-cancelling unidirectional lav mics (also inexpensive) that I'll try. The Sanken Cub's are way too pricey for this hobby of mine.--my wife would never understand.

rraud wrote on 1/12/2013, 6:52 PM

I find cardioid lavs only useful for situations involving a PA system where gain before feedback is an issue. Even then, they are subject to severe volume drop off when the subject turns their head or is otherwise off-axis. Additionally, they are prone to wind, cable noise and clothing rustle, much more so than their Omni counterparts. Good luck with directional lavs just the same.

musicvid10 wrote on 1/13/2013, 9:15 PM

Yes, in 2000 we put a cardioid lav on "Joseph" before I understood that feedback rejection carries its price. Every time he turned his head we lost him . . .

Notice I did not suggest a directional lav -- I suggested an earset; a whole new ballgame (10,000 TV preachers can't be wrong).

Even the bieb is using Britney's CM311a -- kind of clunky by today's standards (below).

UKharrie wrote on 2/5/2013, 6:50 PM

FWIW I think there is a better approach - for NEW recordings.
Buy a SDHC audio recorder, like "Zoom H1" this records two stereo track from internal electret mics - but will take external mic inputs.

As others have suggested you need to get the mic close to each mouth - and if the AirCon is On, a fluffy to cut LF wind noise. The correct sort are "Tie-clip" which attach to lapels - or if you don't mind odd-looks, a ligtweight headphone with microphone - I understand these are sold as "Skype headsets".

To adjust the levels, use a small external mixer ( you may have to get a "techy" to make this). the output then goes into the H!. The screen's Level-Meters show the speech-levels and try to get them balanced. By driving about, you can get the passenger to read the "background level" - Try changes to Optimise the signal to noise.
This arrangement means you can fiddle about with settings before getting back to the camcorder footage. Also as the camera is moved about any handling won't appear in the final Edit, since you replace the Camcorder Audio with the H1's.

...Enjoy the next Trip...

I bought a PalmTrack, which is excellent (apart from some obvious-to-user sillies . . . but Alesis has deleted the product...Huh!

Of course there are Sony equlivalents . . . check your Store. Note that electret tie-clips require a 1.5v DC supply - make sure you let yr "Techy" use the mics, it's easy enough to superimpose this voltage on each input.