Crackle…pop…hiss… The dreaded sounds of bad field audio. You’re not alone. Audio is the most over looked aspect of producing a video and to many its overwhelming. Don’t fret, for the most part, bad field audio can be fixed to a quality fit for broadcast. Don’t however, think you can just fix it in post! When shooting take the time to capture the best audio you can. Most of the following techniques use FCP plug-ins, but using an audio program is ALWAYS the best way to work with your audio. These are just a couple of quick fixes to help in a faced paced production environment or for those not yet comfortable with an audio program.
Wind is the most prevalent problem I see when trying to fix audio. For this I like to use FCP’s Low Shelf filter. It doesn’t work 100% of the time but by spending a couple seconds playing with the sliders you can cut most of the wind noise from your audio track. “Now it sounds like it’s coming through a can” you might say. Well yes, it does but thats because you took a frequency range (big or small) and brought the levels down (or cut them altogether). To counter the effect of the previous effect, drop an EQ on it and adjust the frequencies to your liking.
Low levels or inconsistent levels are other relatively quick fixes. For this I use Soundtrack Pro. Drag the audio you are working with onto a track. Double click on the waveforms, thus selecting the track. First Normalize your audio to 0db. Look under your effects tab and find Normalize. A dialogue box will appear with sliders for gain. This setting should be set at 0dB and can usually be left alone. Next I run it through a Compressor to make the track nice and fat. Compressors differ from program to program in options and capabilities, but what ever one you have will work. This is how you “stack” your audio (Dialogue is always on the top 6dB, SFX and music -6dB to -18dB depending on what your doing).
If all else fails you can always revert back to ADR or shooting the scene over. I cant stress enough the need to pay attention to your audio while in production. If the audio is bad, do it over. You already have everything set-up and it will save you time in the long run.
Any quick fixes we missed? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Wes Waddell
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Wes, it is great to see that you paid attention in our audio courses. This is a nice blog and good information.