Help with a sound problem

Hey all...

Long story short, while shooting some interviews, my lav mic (through a beachtek box) failed and all I have is the sound from the 5DMkIII's mic. Did not find this out until I got back to edit (or course!).

Any tips on how I can take this really crappy sound, raise the volume in FCPX and get this to a reasonable level without it starting to break apart or sound tinny?

Beyond the basics in FCP...any plug ins or other things that can help me sweeten this?

My fault for not checking but there it is.

MP

The EQ plugins in X are really good, so that can help fatten it up a bit. It's sometimes difficult to add frequencies that aren't there to begin with, but it's do-able up to a point. The FCP X loudness enhancement setting will work well to boost the gain. And assuming you need to clean the sound up, Sound Soap is a great, inexpensive plugin, and Izotope RX, while expensive, is pretty much the best thing out there for repairing crappy sound. It'll be trial and error, but the combo of the above stuff should hopefully get you something useable.

Hi Mike.

Sorry to hear about your predicament.

Though it's to late now, this really shows the importance of monitoring audio especially when doing assignment stuff.

Coming from a stills background that moved into video, I've been really woodshedding and honing my audio skills since good sound is actually more important than great video quality.

I hope that your audio can be recovered. Best to you.

Jonathan

the Effects/Audio/Compressor offers 3 (4?...) 'Voice' presets which give a thin recording a lil' more "boom!" ...

Jonathan,

I appreciate your input but I DID monitor audio.
As a stills guy you should know that you need an XLR adapter like the beachtek to use lav mics on a 5D. The problem is that you can get perfect monitored sound through these boxes but if you have a bad connection between the box and the camera, the 5D doesn't recognize the external input and defaults to the internal mic.
In hindsight I have realized that when I pulled my headphones out of the beachtek to listen to playback on the first take, which was perfect, I discovered that thanks to the fact that the headphone and mic jacs are right next to each other on the 5D, the mic plug from the beachtek into the 5D got jostled out of contact when I pulled the headphones plug out... though it still looked plugged in.
When I put the headphones back in the beachtek I was still getting good sound through that box because that is where I was monitoring but the camera was getting nothing.
After some testing yesterday I noted that the cord from the beachtek to the camera is really poor and a new one should solve the base problem. I still have to deal with the poor sound resulting from this hardware issue.
That said...I'll keep any comments about offering remedial training/"you should have done that" suggestions to myself

MP

Definitely look into Izotope's RX plug-in. It has a de-reverb that will really help with the room ambiance/echo that is likely going to be present from using the camera mic. And you can also do some advanced noise reduction with this plug. I assume you're not having to deal with lens IS noise, which would be brutal.

And since you're keeping comments about remedial training/"you should have done that" suggestions to yourself, I'll add three further words: dual system sound.

I would chime in another vote for Izotope RX - it can really do some wonders. Another cheap plugin that is useful for reducing room noise that you're likely going to have is SPL's DeVerb

Mike,

If you want to send me 60 seconds of the audio I'll run it through these plugins so you can see if it is going to get you the results you need

Mike,

The reason I mentioned the monitoring, about a day before your post, I witnessed someone shooting an interview with exactly your set up and they were NOT monitoring the audio with headphones, just looking at the levels. :ohmy:

Since you mentioned the headphones, and from your second post, I'm guessing you have more than just a basic understanding of audio. Problem with forums is you are never sure who knows what.

I just assume everyone knows more than me all the time.

I've made every possible mistake and had every problem, and am probably due for the one that you just had!

Given that, and like SMG669 mentioned, a double system is SOP for me at this point. Hopefuly some of the suggestions from the others help out.

Jonathan

Jonathan Levin wrote: a double system is SOP for me at this point.

Jonathan

Yes I even run dual audio when using the EX1's because one time I had a glitch on the sxs card that had the lav sound & all I had to work with was the camera.

So I'll commonly feed both cameras with a mixer or run a boom to one & a lav to the other.

On DSLR shoots I use my Tascam DR100mkII as a preamp to the camera AND my back up audio.

I'm sure we've all been there Mike!

Hi Mike,
Not sure if you are still working on the issue or not, thought I stick in my wooden nickels worth of advice.

First I would determine if all of the clips need the same audio treatment or do different clips need separate tweaking. If all are the same, you can detach audio and then make a compound clip or select all audio clips to apply the sweetening. If you moved the camera, talent moved, multi cam shoot that you need to match, etc… then you'll need to treat the clips separately.

There are of course the automatic analyze and fix settings that you can try. Nope?

Just to add gain, you are limited to 12db relative from the timeline or audio inspector, but by adding gain via the "Effects Browser" you can add more. Make sure to display the Audio Meters to watch the peaks.

Select clip(s) then you can add Gain from the "Levels" section or I like to start with "Channel EQ" from the EQ section of the "Effects Browser". From here you can attenuate problem frequencies, add gain, and most importantly see in real time frequencies by clicking the analyzer button. If you have a problem sound like camera auto focus/image stabilizer motor, etc… noise you can loop a segment that isolates that sound and EQ to lessen the specific frequency range. You can also use the 31band EQ in the Audio Inspector pane to narrow in on specific frequencies and use the "Q" range to help reduce problem sounds.

After fixing the problem issues, add reverb from the "Spaces" section of the Effect Browser. This will fatten/sweeten the sound. Try the "Room" presets and if they don't work, add the 800lb gorilla the "Space Designer" effect. Open up the interface(s) and play with the settings till you like the sound.

If you are matching sound from another audio source, looking at the analyzer and listening to the sound you can get pretty close. FCPX does also have a Match Audio in the "Magic Wand" pop up menu. Doesn't hurt to try, but manual is often the way to go.

You may want to add a compressor and limiter to even out the levels.

I think you can achieve very acceptable(repaired) audio for most vids within FCPX if you work at it. While I'm sure that something like Izotope RX plug-in is great; lots of folks sing it's praises, but at what costs? Just not in my budget.
Hope this helps, been in your shoes more than once, Greg