Minimising specific frequencies

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
January 31, 2019
3 replies
962 views

I've got a piece of audio that was captured outdoors in a barnyard area. It's an interview with a farmer and in a couple places, the birds (chickens & geese) get a bit excited and make quite a bit of noise. Enough that it interferes with the dialogue. Doesn't completely obscure the dialogue, but does compete with it.

I want to try to pull down the level of the birds and am wondering what the best way to do that may be.

I've opened the Spectral Frequency Display and I can see, where the birds are most evident, the frequencies bump up into the 7k to 15k range. This is as I would expect.

Would I be best to try to use a graphic equalizer and pull those frequencies down? Or might I be better to split the stream using the Frequency Band Splitter and work on the specific frequencies that way? Or is there another approach that may be better?

I'm not looking to eliminate the birds. This isn't TV cop drama where anything is possible. I just want to try to pull the levels down so that the dialogue isn't overpowered (as much).

Using Audition CC (11.1.1.3) on Win 7 Pro, if that matters.

Thanks.

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paulfigg

Inspiring

iZotope RX 7 ADV. Dialogue Isolate

-paul.

@produceNewMedia

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PhotogCdaAuthor

Inspiring

Digging into this further, I think Audition may not be the best approach. At least not in this case and not without spending significant time. Tried Sound Remover and that didn't work well. Worked with EQ, FFT, Parametric EQ and noise reduction and nothing really gave me a good result. I could tone down the birds, but it also pulled down the higher end of the dialogue making everything sound flat.

I started looking into the Essential Sound panel of Pr, and that seems to be giving me the best result. Using the Balanced Male Voice preset, then adjusting Dynamics and EQ (Subtle Boost, Male preset) is giving me a decent result. It's boosting the dialogue enough that the bird sounds, while still evident, aren't competing as much with the dialogue now. Downside is it pushes up some wind noise, but I can probably take care of that with noise reduction. The dialogue, with this approach, retains its range and crispness.

ryclark

Participating Frequently

PhotogCda wrote
Digging into this further, I think Audition may not be the best approach. At least not in this case and not without spending significant time.

Normally Audition can do anything with audio that Premiere can do but usually much better. But I agree that it might take a bit longer but would generally achieve better results. But as long as you are happy with the results that's all that matters. You could always post a clip of the offending audio via Dropbox or Google Drive for one of us to have a look at if you would like further suggestions.