Background Noise

[blackvipers]

New to this hobby which I can see could quickly develop into a passion as it is for many of you here.

Anyway, I have shot many home videos of my boy playing ball and such at local parks. However, one of the park has persistent traffic noise in the background. I was wondering is there a way or an application out there to isolate the noise and essentially eliminated?

Also, any source or recommendtion if I want to spruce up the sound of these footage of my kid to make them better than the sound I've recorded from my regular cam mic.?

Some of the application I've been using so far is Premiere Pro 1.5 and TMPGEnc 2.5.

Thanks

[anubis13]

soundforge 7 and the noise reduction plug-in

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=14

[proxyx99]

Don't think you will ever get satisfactory results with any software. Best way is to avoid noisy environments and if not possible use the directional external mic. They can be bought separately. Once you get a "noisy" track there is only a limited numer of things you can do. Background noise removal is an art in itself and you would need to experiment a lot in order to learn how to do it. Directional mic is the only way to go.

[housepig]

have to agree - you're going to find that most noise-reduction software works best with constant noises like background hiss or stuff like boiler-room noise, or with short transients like clicks and pops.

by contrast, intermittent traffic noise might take some serious hand-editing of the audio track, and may not be seperable from the other environmental noise you want in the track.

if your kid is playing ball and not speaking all the time, you might be able to take some clean crowd noise / environmental sound and copy->paste it over some of the traffic noise when it's at its worst.

[Tommyknocker]

New to this hobby which I can see could quickly develop into a passion as it is for many of you here.

Anyway, I have shot many home videos of my boy playing ball and such at local parks. However, one of the park has persistent traffic noise in the background. I was wondering is there a way or an application out there to isolate the noise and essentially eliminated?

Also, any source or recommendtion if I want to spruce up the sound of these footage of my kid to make them better than the sound I've recorded from my regular cam mic.?

Some of the application I've been using so far is Premiere Pro 1.5 and TMPGEnc 2.5.

Thanks

Not to mention, if there are intermittent horns, etc. you can drive such transient sounds to zero volume. And you may also want to consider adding music to the background. It really punches up any video if done right.

[proxyx99]

I agree with that suggestion. Adding music and balancing the volume between the two would make street sounds less pronounced and annoying. Music will mask the noise. Try lowering the overall volume of the original track to lbring down its (what otherwise is very desirable) transparency/crispness. Manipulating the EQ may be of some help but the sound spectrum of ambient "noise" is in the same range as the human voice so do not expect any breakthrough results.

[NightWing]

Going to think this is nuts but fake the audio track! Thats what the big boys do when they are filming. Done in Post production.

[Tommyknocker]

Going to think this is nuts but fake the audio track! Thats what the big boys do when they are filming. Done in Post production.

Definitely would be a judgement call as it would no longer be his child's voice, but someone else's.

[NightWing]

Just use his voice.

[sacajaweeda]

Use crowd noise from something like the Super Bowl. That might even get a few laughs on the scenes where you pan the half filled bleachers at the local ball park.

[NightWing]

If all else failes. If you have an external mike jack on the camera. You could try a wirless mike.