Recording and cleaning up loud screams.

[harmonica44]

I practiced recording screams with myself for practice, but when doing it with the actors on set, their voices of course are different and I couldn't set the levels correct for them. Basically the only thing I can tell is wrong with the playback is that it's a little distorted, and there is sound in the background hard to describe. Kind of a metallic sheering sound or something. What can I do in Adobe Audition to clean it up? I found some tutorials, but none of them deal with such loud screams specifically so far.

If the audio is unclean-able, what can I do with the levels to re-record the screams? I am hoping to avoid this cause my lead actress has now moved, and I would have to use someone to redub the whole thing then. But still it would be good to know for next time of course. Thanks.

 

[Alcove Audio]

iZotope RX Pro sometimes does a passable job at cleaning up distorted sounds using DeClip and Spectral Repair.

Another option is to attempt to smooth out the waveforms by redrawing them with the pencil tool, at least in Pro Tools; I don't know if this is an option in Audition. It's a very long painstaking process that works about 30% of the time, and is mostly effective on momentary transients, not continuous distortion and aliasing.

This is why you set the second audio channel of the production sound recorder to a lower level than the primary audio channel; if properly set it gives you an audio track free of distortion. This is also why you use a quality mixer with a limiter. This is one you'll have to chalk up to experience and another reason why you should retain a qualified production sound mixer and boom-op who know how to deal with these types of issues.

 

[harmonica44]

Thanks. I would have done that with the sound recorder, but it does not have a second channel option. It's the FR2-LE. Had I known about this trick before I purchased it, I would have bought something else. My sound mixer left before shooting that short film, and I wasn't able to find other ones during. But I will see what I can do. I think it would be best to look for an audio engineer that can help, if I can't get Audition to do all that myself without help my first time. It's not too very distorted, just a little static-ish sounding, with the sheer in the screams. I was told by my DP that she heard a good technique is too add white noise to cover up the unwanted background sheers and hisses, and that's a common practice. Not sure if she knows for certain of course.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Did you gain-stage correctly? Did you use the limiter?

 

[harmonica44]

Yes I think I had the limiter turned on. I did not have other things turned on cause some of those options give it a hissing sound I wanted to avoid. But I think I had the limiter on, as usual. It doesn't clip at all, but it does reach a level of somewhat distortion or something. I am still trying to figure out what the right gain is for a scream since every voice is different and every room is different. I had the trim turned halfway up, and the level control turned about halfway up or less even when the screams got real loud. I kept recording at different gains, but couldn't get rid of the sheering background noise still, even with the mic backed further away. But setting them both halfway or less, was the cleanest I could get it without it recording too quiet. I'm still learning how to anticipate the best gain depending on the voice.

 

[JoshL]

Thanks. I would have done that with the sound recorder, but it does not have a second channel option. It's the FR2-LE. Had I known about this trick before I purchased it, I would have bought something else. My sound mixer left before shooting that short film, and I wasn't able to find other ones during. But I will see what I can do. I think it would be best to look for an audio engineer that can help, if I can't get Audition to do all that myself without help my first time. It's not too very distorted, just a little static-ish sounding, with the sheer in the screams. I was told by my DP that she heard a good technique is too add white noise to cover up the unwanted background sheers and hisses, and that's a common practice. Not sure if she knows for certain of course.

But it does. I thought we had a conversation about this before...weren't you using a y connector to run the same mic into both channels, and setting the gain on one channel at a lower level to use as a safety track?

 

[harmonica44]

Yeah but then on here I was told not to do that, cause the Y-cable cuts the signal in half, resulting in quality loss. So I did that just in case, not knowing which is right for sure. Since I recorded the screams completely separate from the other dialogue I did have the levels set low but it still sounded unclean. Maybe I didn't go low enough, but when I went lower, it says that it was only recording at 24db, which isn't loud enough of course.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Use one of these to send to both channels:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SplitPro/

 

[harmonica44]

Okay thanks, I like the idea of a connector that makes a copy of the signal, rather than cuts it in half. Now even though there are two mic trims on the FR2-LE, there is only one gain dial for both channels, and not one for each, to set differently. Will this be a problem in recording a clean sudden scream, on the safe track?

 

[JoshL]

Yeah but then on here I was told not to do that, cause the Y-cable cuts the signal in half, resulting in quality loss. So I did that just in case, not knowing which is right for sure. Since I recorded the screams completely separate from the other dialogue I did have the levels set low but it still sounded unclean. Maybe I didn't go low enough, but when I went lower, it says that it was only recording at 24db, which isn't loud enough of course.

I'm not sure if that's exactly true...you'll definitely get a loss in signal level, but I'm not sure you'd get a loss in quality (Alcove, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that one). Either way, the splitter would take care of that (ART makes some nice budget gear. I have one of their cheap tube preamps that I use to color recordings and I love the tones I can get with it).

As for your other question, the trim control is what we're talking about. Set that differently for each channel.

All that said, if you aren't clipping and getting a distorted sound, are you sure it's not just the sound of the scream? When you scream, you don't get a clear tone like you are speaking or singing. Can you post samples for us to take a listen to?

 

[Alcove Audio]

Although it does reduce the level it doesn't cut the signal in half. There are lots of variables - which mic, which recorder, etc.

The FR2 has two channel trim pots and two volume dials. H44, I sometimes wonder you actually read the manuals and really experiment with this stuff.

 

[harmonica44]

I have read the manual, but it did not say whether a Y cable was a disadvantage. I tried experimenting and even though I cannot personally tell a difference in quality loss, I still wasn't sure from what others have said. Okay so basically there is no loss in quality, you just have to turn the levels up higher. But wouldn't that create more hissing possibly? At least it sounds like it does to me.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Now even though there are two mic trims on the FR2-LE, there is only one gain dial for both channels, and not one for each, to set differently.

This is where I feel that you didn't read the manual. You can adjust the trim and the volume for both channels separately; there is an inner dial and an outer dial for the volume.

 

[harmonica44]

No what I was saying is that you can't adjust them separately. I was saying that since you can't how am I suppose to just two gains for two different channels if I only have one gain. But if the same amount of gain does not matter for two trims at different settings, then that's okay.

 

[Alcove Audio]

I have used the unit personally for recording sound effects. You can adjust TRIM levels separately and you can also adjust recording levels of the left and right channels separately. Go to page 38 of your manual. You will see that there are two dials called "Recording Level Controls" (#5). I repeat; they can be adjusted separately, one dial is inside of the other.

 

[harmonica44]

Holy cow, it is a dial inside of one. I totally missed that and have been playing with just one dial for two before lol. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Thanks a lot for the info. I will practice to see which amount of gain is the best for a scream, for next time. In the mean time I might have to find an audio engineer to fix these screams. I will post them online later on.