[phildavies79]

Just done 4hours worth of filming only to find there is a lot of load static on the audio.

I'm using a wireless Sennheiser clip mic with a Canon HV30. I double checked and tested it at home (before and after the shoot) and it was fine - all I can think is that it was down to the talent wearing 2 layers of polyester.

Are there any programs / options for removing the static but keeping the talent's voice in tact? It's so bad in some places that you can't hear him speak at all so those bits will have to be re-shot, but anything I can save will be valuable.

Cheers, Phil.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by phildavies79

Just done 4hours worth of filming only to find there is a lot of load static on the audio.

I'm using a wireless Sennheiser clip mic with a Canon HV30. I double checked and tested it at home (before and after the shoot) and it was fine - all I can think is that it was down to the talent wearing 2 layers of polyester.

Are there any programs / options for removing the static but keeping the talent's voice in tact? It's so bad in some places that you can't hear him speak at all so those bits will have to be re-shot, but anything I can save will be valuable.

Cheers, Phil.

Reckon you are asking the impossible phil but i hope somone comes up with an answer for you.

[A n d r e w]

There's not a lot you can do, without attacking the voice component of your recording. Most audio editing software will allow you to add a filter to cut out some of the high frequencies, but almost certainly that will muffle speech since consonants are at the high frequency end of the spectrum.

I don't want to flog a dead horse here, but your experience is instructive for others: make sure you monitor your audio during recording, especially for critical "one-off" recordings.

[phildavies79]

Yep thought so...

Can certain types of clothing really make so much difference? It was a golfer wearing a long sleeved top similar to the skin tight "under armour" that professional sports people wear under their shirts. He had another nylon/polyester polo t-shirt on top

I just looked the specs of his long sleeved top up:

The Canterbury Baselayer IonX Cold T-Shirt, worn by 2005 US Open Champion Michael Campbell - Ionised Energy Fabric delivers ionic energy to the body through a negatively charged electromagnetic field.

Hmmmmm.

[MarkE19]

Without hearing the static on the audio track it is hard to give good advice. Personally I would think the static noise would be due to interference on the radio channel your mic was using rather than the clothes being worn. Or perhaps wind noise being picked up or..........

There is a fair amount that can be done to clean up audio, but it takes expensive equipment and time & knowledge of the equipment to get it done. Something like parametric EQ can be set to remove very narrow band frequencies that should help.
Parametric EQ is used by live bands to control feedback, so if you know any bands or sound engineers they may be able to help. Or the Behringer Feedback Destroyer (BFD), that are used by some on this forum to tame their subwoofers, is a parametric EQ unit.

Mark.

[chrishull3]

To be fair it is very hard to monitor sound on very loud events ,bands etc i tried to recently on some fairs with loud music of various sorts and with my head phones on all i could hear is what was coming from around not through the phones and they are very sensitive ones, its best not to have the cams sound set too high[it can be adjusted in editing]and if an external mic like a rode stereo is used switch the -10 db on.
But on filming like phil was doing monitoring would have been the way to go.

[senu]

On the subject of "What to do" after the event, are there any equaliser or para metric software he can use?
I know of some titles like Magix Audio cleaning Lab ( I have one or 2 older versions ) Ive used to clean up audio from LPs which are static "ridden":
Is it not possible the audio track could benefit from them?

[MarkE19]

It is very difficault to say what will help as I haven't heard the audio.
A lot of software audio cleaning can actually make the overall sound worse IMO as it uses filters that are too wide, or can add other noise to the track. This all obviously depends on the exact software used, and the hardware it is running on. I have a fair bit of experiance as a sound engineer and prefer to do audio the old fashioned way on a mixing desk and off board effects units. I do know though that there is a lot of very good audio software out there, and when used with high quality PC components can give far better results as everything stays digital at all times. However not many home PC's have the hardware required to get the best out of even very good software.
I have had very limited experience in a friends recording studio with Cakewalk and Cuebase. But his PC was not up there with the rest of the equipment in the studio. We therefore ended up ignoring the PC route and got the best results on the mixing desk.
To add to the above. My friend whos recording studio I was working in is a BBC sound engineer (working mainly on Eastenders, but we wont hold that against hime too much ). So he has extensive knowledge of a lot of high quality hardware & software and he did agree that in his studio the PC was not the best route.

But with the above in mind (and eventually getting around to senu's question ) the OP may find he can do a fair amount of cleaning up of the audio with some basic software such as that sugggested by senu. And of course even if it does a bad job there will be nothing lost other than a bit of time & effort.

Mark.

[Mr Taylor]

What you have encountered is a common probem in movie making.

Set noise obscuring the actors lines.

There are four ways to get around this.

The normal practice is to get the actors back in to overdub the words in sync, using the final cut as a guide.
Remember, you have to match the size and reflective nature of real set.(eco and absorbtion controls on software)
You can even make a much nicer tone than you could have ever had on set.
You might need to get a lot of sheets up on the walls - to deaden the sound of the studio walls.

Another way is to run the audio track through a frequency filter, some editing software has this feature.
Say the hum is at 220Hz, well you get the software to ignore that band of sound only. the problem is, any speech at 220Hz will also be missing.

Another way that the BBC use, if the speaker is not speaking english, is to make the speakers track a fairly quiet background sound and have a professional speaker clearly reapeating what the speaker has said over the top.

Last but not least you have subtitles.

For the next project you film, it will be a good idea to get headphones and keep them on during filming.
I know it makes you look like a geek, but you need to keep track of the sound as you aquire it.

Welcome to the talkies!