automobile rumble and audio

M

mrpink89

Did a shoot today and in some cases in my recordings I kept getting mortercycle rumble in my audio. It isn't lounder then my acter and in no way does it intrupet him, my actor is lounder then the rumble. But still I can hear it and it bugs me what can I do to get rid of the rumble or am i screwed all together? can anything in editings help me out? Note that I did have the low cut filter on but can still hear a faint "burrrmmmmgggggmmmmm"

Gear I am using if it helps is: Mic: NTG2- and recording on Marantz PMD 661
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Is the "motorcycle rumble" intermittent or constant?

Is it a real motorcycle, or does it just sound like it?

Is it really loud or faint or moderate or does it vary from minute to minute?

If you can post it, or better yet, make it available for download, we can check it out.


You can always try iZotope RX2; it's not exactly magic, but it works quite well, and the spectral repair is amazing.



BTW, why didn't you notice it during production?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
it's faint and having trouble up loading you can hear the actor and it isn't louder then him at all it's just faint, like it sounds like a car is drivng past idk in a way it is good ambiance. and this is from an old audio clip where i wasn't aware as much. not that i am an expert
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrpink89 said:
it's faint and having trouble up loading you can hear the actor and it isn't louder then him at all it's just faint, like it sounds like a car is drivng past idk in a way it is good ambiance. and this is from an old audio clip where i wasn't aware as much. not that i am an expert
Click to expand...

When you say rumble, I take it you mean a low frequency rumble? If so, a high pass filter at say 80Hz or even 120Hz could cure or partially cure the problem without affecting the dialogue too much. Also, "faint" is a relative term, probably the best you can say is that it sounds "faint" on your sound system. Therefore, whether this rumble is in fact faint or whether it will in practise impinge on the quality/clarity of the dialogue depends on the sound system your audience will be listening with.

harmonica44 said:
Even if it makes for a good background ambience sound, the sound is recorded 'off-axis', so will it work therefore?
Click to expand...

Why wouldn't an off-axis recorded sound work?

G
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Harmonica once again displays his incredible ignorance.


mrpink89 said:
it's faint and having trouble up loading you can hear the actor and it isn't louder then him at all it's just faint, like it sounds like a car is drivng past idk in a way it is good ambiance. and this is from an old audio clip where i wasn't aware as much. not that i am an expert
Click to expand...

What's with the run-on sentence? Up too late? Too much Red Bull?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well in my opinion off axis sounds just don't sound as good. Like if you record an actor outside and a car passes by, but you keep the mic on the actor, the car passing by just doesn't sound near as sharp, compared to if you had the mic aimed at the car, and followed it.

But if it works for audiences than it works. Perhaps that's how lots of movies are made, with all the off axis sounds in the background kept in, and we just don't pay attention.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cut to a shot of a motorcycle ridding by, just work it in to the footage, make it look like you meant to do that! Likely as not you'll never get it out.

Do EQ anything really LOW so that it doesn't haunt you on good playback system..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
un able to re shoot it which sucks so my audio is total screwed? haha and no Alvcoe just was drinking some other beverages.

I just find it hard to believe that something like this could ruin audio to the point that is is useless I mean there has to be something. it isn't like it is distorted.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
While I am on the subject, what am I suppose to do when it comes to recording audio in the woods? it will be impossible to not pick up the sounds of twigs snapping beneath the actors feet. Wouldn't that be the equivalent to car rumble?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrpink89 said:
un able to re shoot it which sucks so my audio is total screwed? haha and no Alvcoe just was drinking some other beverages.
Click to expand...

Still drinking them, I see.... :D

mrpink89 said:
un able to re shoot it which sucks so my audio is total screwed?
Click to expand...

What have you tried so far? Low Pass Filter? Volume Dipping? Noise Reduction?

mrpink89 said:
I just find it hard to believe that something like this could ruin audio to the point that is is useless I mean there has to be something. it isn't like it is distorted.
Click to expand...

Remember "Forrest Gump?" "Shrimpin' is HARD!" Well, "Sound-For-Picture is HARD!!!!!"


mrpink89 said:
While I am on the subject, what am I suppose to do when it comes to recording audio in the woods? it will be impossible to not pick up the sounds of twigs snapping beneath the actors feet.
Click to expand...

You rake everything out of the way so you don't get the snapping twigs and rustling leaves in the first place. It's called Set Prep. Or you decide in advance that you are going to do ADR or wild dialog.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
In al honesty I haven't tried anything, I need to get a better computer in order to begin my editing stuff. just waiting for my taxes. I used the low pass filter on my NTG2 and my recorder PMD 661.

I will not be a fan of this set prep but if it is the case where I do get a snapping of a twig what could I do?,

what is ADR? I keep hearing that term. Yes I know I could look it up on google but it wouldn't really mean anything since I have 0 knowledge on what it is. ( personal disclaimer, not trying to use you as a search engine)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrpink89 said:
In all honesty I haven't tried anything, I need to get a better computer in order to begin my editing stuff. Just waiting for my taxes. I used the low pass filter on my NTG2 and my recorder PMD 661.

I will not be a fan of this set prep
Click to expand...

"Not a fan of Set Prep"? Then you are not a fan of capturing solid production sound; therefor not a fan of making a good film.

mrpink89 said:
...but if it is the case where I do get a snapping of a twig what could I do?
Click to expand...

You edit it out. The whole point is to avoid the problem in the first place. Or you'll need to do ADR.

mrpink89 said:
What is ADR? I keep hearing that term. Yes I know I could look it up on google but it wouldn't really mean anything since I have 0 knowledge on what it is. (Personal disclaimer, not trying to use you as a search engine)
Click to expand...

Automated Dialog Replacement. The actors go into a studio and redo their lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2HKN1N2SZQ

On low/no/mini/micro budgets, with low/no/mini/micro budget talent, using low/no/mini/micro budget equipment, ADR is a very long and painful process. ADR is the very last thing I ask a director/producer to turn to when I can't get any of the dialog alts or dialog wild lines to work. I've spent three hours getting a single line. That was the extreme end of bad, but it's usually five to ten minutes per line; so if there's 60 total minutes of dialog that's 300 to 600 minutes of actual ADR time (if the talent is good, and the director doesn't try to change things too much) - and doesn't include breaks, feeding/hydrating the talent, transportation, etc., etc., etc. - so figure on booking 15 to 30 hours for ADR at the minimum. And just try getting your talent in for the ADR sessions weeks or months after your shoot.

This may be my business, but doing ADR at the low/no/mini/micro budget level is very frustrating work. It also reduces the budget for the "fun" stuff like Foley and sound effects, and reduces mixing time.

One of the sound dictums for low/no/mini/micro budget indie filmmaker is "Every dollar/minute you spend on production sound will save you at least ten dollars/minutes in audio post." This is why you need to plan your production sound thoroughly during preproduction. More projects are rejected by festivals for poor sound than any other technical reason.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
wow thanks for the help, ADR sounds painfull to do, bet you had to do it before right? I just don;t want to go go in the woods but hell i didn't want to stay up all night making fake blood and fake body parts while having a shoot the next day but I did it anyways because I had no other option.

anything else you could recommend for sound prepping I mean what about birds chirping?
I can't do anything about that.

This film I am doing is my film school i would hate for errors to be in my work but I have to look at the reality and realize I am new at this and errors are going to happen all I can do is lean from them. doesn't mean I am gonna settle, oh no defiantly not. in the end I just want something watch able.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrpink89 said:
Wow thanks for the help, ADR sounds painfull to do, bet you had to do it before right?
Click to expand...

90% of the time it's a PITA; the talent has never done it before, nor has the director. The other 10%, when everyone is experienced, it can be a very creative process.

mrpink89 said:
Anything else you could recommend for sound prepping I mean what about birds chirping? I can't do anything about that.
Click to expand...

Scout the location carefully for sound. See if you can find schedules for local events nearby. It was okay when you scouted it, but the weekend you show up to shoot there's a motorcycle rally happening, or someone is having a loud party in their back yard. If you can, bring a mic and recorder and capture the sound of the location when you're scouting; it sounds very different than what your ears hear.

Be sure to capture lots of ambient tone (outdoors room tone). Unless you have very expensive noise reduction you cannot eliminate birds, etc. from your dialog tracks, so you "hide" it in the ambience.

Eliminate anything that can make noise. Rake up leaves, twigs, etc. Make sure that you clean up of where your crew will be working as well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mrpink89 said:
wow thanks for the help, ADR sounds painfull to do, bet you had to do it before right?
Click to expand...

Making films or TV content for commercial distribution/broadcast is harder still because as well as a complete mix you have to deliver the sound effects separately from the dialogue. This means in practise that the dialogue cannot contain any other sounds except for room tone. Commercial film makers therefore have to go to great lengths to eliminate sounds from their production recordings, this means great set prep and the use of things like fake ice cubes, lots of hidden rubber mats, sound blankets, a host of other tricks including the use of sound stages and of course highly experienced professional production sound teams armed with the finest equipment. Even with all this, the average theatrical release usually comprises somewhere between 30%-90% ADR. At least a few days, if not a week or more of ADR is always written into the main actor's contracts.

Indie filmmakers, making films for Youtube or for submission to film festivals, have it much easier because providing the extraneous sounds doesn't make the dialogue unclear or difficult to understand, it's not the end of the world if the production dialogue contains some other sounds. The only danger is for those submitting to film festivals and hoping to get a distribution deal, as the potential distributors would either have to factor in a considerable cost to clean up all the dialogue and recreate all the removed sounds or require the filmmaker to do this prior to distribution.

G
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top