Please Help - Loser With Cell Phone Ruined My Speech

[Zeek]

So...

Spoke at my brother's wedding this last weekend, just got home to view the tape, and found out that some ******* is covering up the important part of my speech with the ringing and answering of his cell phone a few feet from the camera. To say the least, I am a little pissed.

I am wondering, is it possible to filter out some or all of this schmuck's noise from the rest of my audio? The big problem is that the camera was placed up in a balcony - a significant distance from me - and so the noise is louder than the sound of my voice.

I recorded with my Canon ZR60 and, at this point, have only viewed/heard this thing by playing back the Mini DV. Any help that any of you could offer would be most apprec...

Thank you.

Zeek

[flaninacupboard]

not at all easy. any kind of vocal filter will kill his speech, but yours too. you could probably eliminate the ringing noise with a high frequency filter, but the voice would not be easy. if the camera was quite a distance away, and you're prepared to do it, i'd re-record the affected section and splice it back in.

Next time make sure you mic up the people talking

[Gees]

I thought the same thing. Re-record your speech and add it back in. Perhaps, to keep it as unnoticeable as possible, put it on a second audio track and reduce the volume of the ruined portion of original way down, keeping some of the background noise.

It'lll be tricky to get just the right levels, but it might be achievable.


Good luck.

[mkelley]

Yup, this is the Hollywood solution -- just "loop" your voice track.

It's actually not hard to do, particularly if you have good audio software (like Sound Forge) where you can do multiple takes as you watch the looped footage. I'd capture the footage so you can loop your playback as you record multiple takes -- then use the best portions of the takes.

As others note, you want to mix back some of the ambient sound, but that shouldn't be too big a deal -- I've done this quite successfully on a lot of occasions and only I know the difference. Think of it this way, it could have been worse, it could have been something else speaking that wouldn't have been willing to take the time to do the looping.

[i_am_dave]

Zeek,

I feel you pain. I don't know how many times I have recorded a family event and had some idiot cousin or kid talking about some other family member in the background!

Dubbing you voice back in is probably your only option. By any chance, did anyone else record your speech? If so, perhaps you can use the sound from his footage.

[Zeek]

Thanks all.

I'll be happy to try all your suggestions, but - stupid me - think I failed to add one important detail. This took place in a small chapel and the place did not have a mike set up appropriately. So...I just spoke loudly, but at 40-50 feet away, not loud enough to compete with the stupid phone.

As for the phone call itself, the voice is actually not the problem. You can hear a faint "hello" for a couple of times, but that much is actually tolerable. The REAL problem is the phone itsellf, whose ringer was one of those stupid jingles followed by the computer voice saying "You have...an incoming call."
So that's what I'm really trying to drown out.

The real bitch is that I asked someone to take care of this for me, and she then delegated to the person that actually owns the phone. And get this...this dork is in the business and has (supposedly) been doing video for 25 years...

flaninacupboard - Maybe that filter would work in the case of the phone ringer? Any suggestions for which one?

mkelley - I DO have Soundforge. Haven't taken the time to really learn it yet, so I guess now's the time. I'm really quite new to editing (just picked up thei camera) so any further suggestions of the first grade type would definitely help me. Thanks very much regardless.

i_am_dave - Thank you also. Without a mike though, will it still be possible to dub my voice back in?

Thanks again guys. You're big help.

[g_shocker182]

I think it wouldn't be that noticable if you re-recorded a voice-over. If the camera was in fact far away, then your mouth movements wouldn't be that obvious.(Unless the camera zoomed in)

[mkelley]

mkelley - I DO have Soundforge. Haven't taken the time to really learn it yet, so I guess now's the time. I'm really quite new to editing (just picked up thei camera) so any further suggestions of the first grade type would definitely help me. Thanks very much regardless.

i_am_dave - Thank you also. Without a mike though, will it still be possible to dub my voice back in?

First thing you need to do is get a good microphone -- you don't have to spend a fortune, but believe me, you will find lots of uses for a decent one down the road so don't try and get by *too* cheap. A decent dynamic mike (think Radio Shack) shouldn't run you more than $50 or $60 (get the one that looks like a highball -- it's windscreen is rounded at the end).

Then learn to speak properly -- talk over the top of the ball, so you don't "pop your p's" or get silibent "s's". Go into Sound Forge and set up the recording for "Multiple takes" so each time you record it lays it down on another track (I'm not at my Sound Forge machine right now, but if you need the exact settings let me know and I'll look them up).

Finally, capture your video and convert it to a small avi (so you can watch it in a loop without hogging all your system resources). As you watch, record your takes. Shouldn't take you more than a couple of trys to loop over the phone rings.

Now you have all kinds of options -- you can mix in Sound Forge (used to be my preferred way of doing things) or lay down the separate tracks in your video editor (the way I work now, since I like to work visually). Adjust the looped tracks so they come up at the time of the phone ring and fade out the other track -- do this both ways and you should be just fine.

A job like this shouldn't take more than an afternoon's worth of work even if you're just learning (and it will be a good learning experience -- after this you will have a lot more confidence in your abilities to handles these kinds of situations which, unfortunately, occur quite often doing live video).

[EddyH]

sounds like you'd be able to track the guy down quite easily, so set about him with a wet trout around the head and shoulders, til he apologises for 1. not turning his phone off at a wedding, 2. actually answering it rather than diverting the call - and 3, goes and does all the dirty work for you.

and do similar to the camera operator so that they dont forget to use a gun-mike next time..

[indolikaa]

Zeek,

I admire your tolerance as a human being. I would've kicked his ass straight into another ZIP code!

I like the idea of looping a small portion of the tape that has nothing but background noise and overlaying that WAV with your 'new' recording of the speech. Having used an older version of Sound Forge for a couple of years, this program is more than capable of handling the task.

[thayne]

You should find out who he is and send him a bill for your time that it takes to fix! People are so damn rude with their cell phone! I really get pissed when one goes off in a movie theater! I say something too

[EddyH]

of course, if you find that you have a talent for the lipsynch, you could make a dual-audio segment on that part of the DVD, and record yourself as 'transparently' saying completely different things.. just switch the audio track one time when people aren't looking and give them a jolt

Heck get a few conspirators in that were also at the wedding and have a completely different 'magic roundabout' version or maybe dub it into french, japanese..!

after all, the CIA do it all the time for the newscasts!