Being a professional audio person, you are aware of the importance of clean audio and clean video. Taking precautions such as keeping the mic too close to the sound source and maintaining high record levels is necessary. However, noise is inevitable many times, and somehow it creeps into the recording.
In this industry, cleaning messy audio is the norm; it might be yours or a task you get from a client. But, taking your time to clean an awful recording is a deal-breaker to your productions.
Check out the tips below to make the best out of a lousy sound situation.
Silence the Audio
You need to establish if the messy audio is essential to the video by muting the sound. There are times when lousy audio does not compromise the integrity of the video. In this case, the audio problem happens in a brief segment (maybe a simple buzz or twist), but the rest of the delivery is satisfactory.
You can decide to cut out the problematic audio entirely instead of muting it all through. However, take caution not to alter the flow of the story when cutting out the awful sound.
Software Remedy
Some audio problems require software solutions. They have a variety of sound effects that better and erase the messy audios. These professional audio tools allow influence at the sample level. Such a program will enable you to layer out annoying sounds and eliminate horrible background noise for remarkable results. Moreover, these audio software solutions can save sound that video editing programs could not salvage.
Add Music
You can add a music bed in case of a small hiss or noise disruption in audio. When the awful sound stands out alone, the listener is displeased but adding a music bed allows the listener to draw attention to something enjoyable.
However, be keen when adding the music not to make it too hot. It would help if you aimed to blend the two smoothly so that one does not compete with the other. The music track should support and uplift the main audio.
Use Noise Reduction
A 60 cycle hum or buzz commonly occurs when power cords cross over microphone cables or poorly grounded cables. Lately, most video editing applications have filters that eliminate such noise within a specific frequency. Usually, you can drag and drop or use a manual slide control to select the particular section with the 60 Hz.
Manual controls also allow the operation of quality around a specific range, allowing the user to curb the frequencies that the filter distresses. Hence, the editor attains a more refined but cleaner frequency assortment and can successfully decrease unpleasant audio buzz.
Include Ambiance
Most times during recording, ambiance noise creeps in the track. The ambiance heavily contrasts with the silent gaps leading to a noticeable noise in the background. As an expert, you need to fish out the voice’s ambiance noise and set it apart. Then fix the room ambiance into the breaks on the timeline to even out the silences between audio edits. Including the atmosphere in a recording is a technique professionals use to have enough ambiance room sound to fill the aura intervals.
Remember that sound or audio is as important as video hence the need for the best and clear soundtracks in a recording.
