Live band music - filtering out other noise and quality of sound

AnitaJ

Member Location: Perth, Western Australia Joined: Sep 27, 2009 22:02 Messages: 51 Offline

Solved by

Jun 19, 2014 03:06

Hi there,

I am very new to AudioDirector4 (downloaded trial version yesterday) but have been using PowerDirector for years now. I have been given a video of a band performing at an event to be used for promotional purposes and the audio is shocking. In some parts the audio is poor because it is filmed at an event (indoors - poor acoustics); in other parts the recording of the singing itself is very poor.

I looked through other posts and I saw the one on auto noise was helpful except that I don't have any parts of the audio that I can grab with just the background noise so that I can isolate.

I have been able to enhance the audio a bit by:-
1) adjusting the reverb to the medium preset (large was goo but made every noise a bit too loud and tinny
2) adjusting the volume overall so that the audio level meter doesn't hit the red

Everything else I seem to experiment with either has very minimal impact or is too extreme eg I tried the noise reduction but it took all of the background sounds, the music and the singing to be the background noises and it left only the high pitch of a microphone sort of sound.

So I have three questions, I hope that this is not a lost cause and I can do something to improve it....

1) is it possible to separate the band's sounds/music and singing from the rest of the audio (as I am typing this I know it is VERY unlikely)

2) any tips to improve the overall quality of the sound, other than what I have already tried??

3) there is something like a crackly sound the whole way through - like the instruments and the singing are too loud for the camcorder's microphone - is there anything I can do about his?

Thank you in advance,

Anita

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Jun 19, 2014 19:58

Hello AnitaJ,

Welcome to the ADR forum

For a new user of AudioDirector, you've been given a massive challenge!

From your description, there seem to be multiple issues with the recording that you're trying to correct.

You appear to be diving in & trying different options, so you must be learning fast.

Recording live music in that environment using only the camera's built in microphone is hardly ever going to produce a nice clean sound. There are so many factors that affect it, including all the background noise.

For others to offer any assistance with your challenge, it would be great if you could upload (as an attachment) the audio segment, or part of it). You can extract the audio in PDR. This is important because adjustments that may work for one audio clip don't necessarily work for another. It very much depends on the properties of your clip.

PIX PIX YouTube channel

AnitaJ

Member Location: Perth, Western Australia Joined: Sep 27, 2009 22:02 Messages: 51 Offline

Jun 20, 2014 00:00

Hi PIX, thank you for your response :

I have just split the audio in PD11 and produced it as a separate audio file - feel like a bit of a dummy here but how do I attach the file to this post?

Cheers
Anita

PIX

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 21, 2011 00:02 Messages: 2910 Offline

Jun 20, 2014 01:12

Filename	applause-1.mp3	Download
Description
Filesize	148 Kbytes
Downloaded:	512 time(s)


Filename	Forum Attach.jpg	Download
Description
Filesize	97 Kbytes
Downloaded:	335 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jun 20. 2014 01:12

PIX YouTube channel

AnitaJ

Member Location: Perth, Western Australia Joined: Sep 27, 2009 22:02 Messages: 51 Offline

Jun 20, 2014 05:33

Hi again,

Looks like you need to hit postreply up the top of the post because when I hit the reply button on the button it doesn't give you the option to attach anything - that's why I was confused :

Filename	Audio file only.wma	Download
Description	live band music
Filesize	2196 Kbytes
Downloaded:	355 time(s)

stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Jun 22, 2014 08:10

Is your camcorder have a stereo audio input/output? What you posted seems to be mono. Some features only work with stereo. .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jun 22, 2014 08:48

Just a note to the OP...
People will tolerate less-than-perfect video, but poor sound makes them go CLICK away.
The only way to get decent audio from a concert/live performance, is to have the sound capture up-close, and IN ONE PLACE. If the audio device has a limiter, use it, as it's audio will be over-blown and start cutting out. You can also plug right into a soundboard, but you might need to lower the audio level in-line to suit your device, again to prevent cutting out, also known as CLIPPING.
You can buy a used ZoomH2, or similar, for short money, syncing the dedicated audio to your video is a breeze in PD12. I suggest you do not start/stop the camera(s) very often, it makes syncing more work than it needs to be.
Just think, 2 cameras and an audio capture device, you'll be producing really nice stuff.
Yeah, a lot of good that does NOW! I'm just giving tips for the future.
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AnitaJ

Member Location: Perth, Western Australia Joined: Sep 27, 2009 22:02 Messages: 51 Offline

Jun 22, 2014 11:59

Thank you Barry and Steve but I have no control at this stage over the recording itself. A booking agent I am doing some work for is given these videos by her bands and they are often very poor quality - apparently this one is one of the worst. She would like me to 'pretty up' the video and improve the audio.

Frustrating as by the time I am getting this video the damage is done :-l

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Jun 22, 2014 12:11

They need a new agent if the agent thinks this is helping clients.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jun 22. 2014 12:12

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT