georgestarcher.randomlings

Random ramblings from my personal side.

Podcast Noise Reduction Example - Cyber Speak

Good noise reduction when editing a podcast is an important skill.

I received a vocal track for Cyber Speak (http://cyberspeak.libsyn.com). Bret's voice is nice and clear itself. But his new recording environment put a low level of constant background noise into his track. So I pretty much pulled it all out completely leaving just his voice. This worked well because his voice was so strong over the noise. I stacked Soundsoap doing general broadband reduction making sure to adjust the settings so it did not noticeably distort Bret's voice. That pulled a lot of the noise out or at least down. The problem is I always do RMS leveling on the voice tracks as I have mentioned in a previous post. So if noise is still present you amplify it too. So I stacked one more effect. I used the built in noise reduction for soundtrack pro. The trick was adjusting the threshold up high enough to catch most of the noise floor while relying on Bret's voice volume to protect it from the reduction. It worked like a charm. See the before and after images below. I show both waveform and frequency views.

This is exactly why I recommend folks record five seconds of "silence" when they start recording. It gives you a nice region to sample noise for good reduction.

 

If you are curious to hear the final result check out the Nov 21 Episode of Cyber Speak. 

(download)

OWLE Bubo for iPhone

I got my Owle Bubo (http://www.wantowle.com/) today.  It is a limited edition run and mine is 233/500.

It is very well designed.  Nothing blocks the dock connector so I can plug in my iPhone without removing it from the chassis.  The included mic comes in a nice little velvet pouch and is very sturdy.  It just plugs into the headphone/mic jack and a hinge lets you aim it to the front of the unit so your sound comes from where the lens is pointed.

Now to just get myself a nice LED light with the shoe mount that is on top of the Owle.

(download)

Simple podcast audio level steps.

Want to make a nice consistent level in your podcast production? Here are the simple steps if your software supports RMS and Peak leveling. These steps come from a ot of experience and guidance over the years from my friends Victor Cajiao and Paul Figgiani.

1. Record as clean audio as you can (minimal noise).
2. Do any noise reduction. This is so you do the least reduction BEFORE you start raising levels.
3. RMS level the track to something around -17.5dB. I actually use -13.1 for Cyberspeak because their mic levels match up the best here.
4. When done editing your show, mix down then Peak level to -1.0dB

That should do it. Now if you don't have RMS leveling ability you can always use the free Levelator. Just remember. Do your noise reduction if any BEFORE you adjust levels. This increases the chance you pull the noise so far down it doesn't also get amplified.

http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator/