Need Help on Background Noise Reduction!

[Pedro Nascimento]

Hello to all of you my name is Pedro.

Recently I have been trying to get my videos up in quality and the sound I know is very important.
I am using a Canon 5D Mark III. When I am walking in the street full of people and I am talking to the camera when I come to editing its very hard to reduce the noise level specially if there is music on the background.
I use Adobe Premiere Pro for the video and I edit some of the audio on Adobe Audition, I use the Noise Reduction Process to get rid of the background noise but its a bit hard to get ride of.
Either my voice gets a bit "robotic" or my voice gets very low and when I try to bump it up a couple of decibels the noise comes again.

How do you guys get rid of it? Any other methods?

 

[Tarmack]

You're confusing noise and audio. You want to remove sources of audio, which are not noise.

This may seem pedantic, but noise in audio recordings is most often used to describe a droning sound level in the recording environment which is more noticeably in the recording but that your brain filters out normally when you're just in the room or outside, etc. You'll see the phrase Noise Floor used in this context. A computer fan, a furnace, the dull hum of a refrigerator, electronic static introduced by unshielded components. These are all noise.

When you're recording out and about, your microphone is listening and drawing in all of the audio it can hear. This includes your voice but also the people nearby. Noise removal in Adobe Audition is not meant to remove audio, it's mean to remove noise. The reason it works on noise is because it is physically removing the frequency range that the noise resides in from the source recording. You can't do that with a wide frequency range (music, talking, etc) because those same frequencies contain your voice as well, which is why it sounds robotic when you use noise removal with a heavy setting.

You have 2 possible solutions.

#1 reduce the gain on the mic and bring the mic closer to your mouth. This increases the relative level of your voice over and above the level of the other background audio so that the background will be less noticeable. This could involve buying a new mic and the type most people use are called Lavalier mics.

#2 buy a microphone specifically designed to only record audio from a particular direction and set it up to record your voice but very little else. You'll see shotgun mics used for this all the time when recording outside.

 

[Pedro Nascimento]

You're confusing noise and audio. You want to remove sources of audio, which are not noise.

This may seem pedantic, but noise in audio recordings is most often used to describe a droning sound level in the recording environment which is more noticeably in the recording but that your brain filters out normally when you're just in the room or outside, etc. You'll see the phrase Noise Floor used in this context. A computer fan, a furnace, the dull hum of a refrigerator, electronic static introduced by unshielded components. These are all noise.

When you're recording out and about, your microphone is listening and drawing in all of the audio it can hear. This includes your voice but also the people nearby. Noise removal in Adobe Audition is not meant to remove audio, it's mean to remove noise. The reason it works on noise is because it is physically removing the frequency range that the noise resides in from the source recording. You can't do that with a wide frequency range (music, talking, etc) because those same frequencies contain your voice as well, which is why it sounds robotic when you use noise removal with a heavy setting.

You have 2 possible solutions.

#1 reduce the gain on the mic and bring the mic closer to your mouth. This increases the relative level of your voice over and above the level of the other background audio so that the background will be less noticeable. This could involve buying a new mic and the type most people use are called Lavalier mics.

#2 buy a microphone specifically designed to only record audio from a particular direction and set it up to record your voice but very little else. You'll see shotgun mics used for this all the time when recording outside.

I totally understand you and I just used the word "noise" because its something that its bothering me, something thats should't be there.
I have a Zoom H5 recorder,a Lavalier mic and a shotgun mic.

#1 I could keep the Zoom H5 on my backpack connected to the lavalier microphone to record the audio separate from the DSLR, I would leave the DSLR to record as well so I could match the voices in post production.

#2 This option would be to connect the shotgun microphone directly to the DSLR and record everything at the same time so it saves me some time matching voices.
Which option would be best?

Just one more thing, about the background noise and background sounds and music is it possible to delete them any other way besides using the Noise Reduction tool, could I use something like an EQ(Equalizer)? To lower the frequencies that are not my voice.

Thank you a lot for your answer, from what you wrote I can see you know a lot about audio. Thank you again.

 

[Tarmack]

#1 I could keep the Zoom H5 on my backpack connected to the lavalier microphone to record the audio separate from the DSLR, I would leave the DSLR to record as well so I could match the voices in post production.

This is what these are for.
htt ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard

That said, I think that you would benefit from doing both if you already have a lav and a shotgun. Why not record the audio track with the shotgun on the video cam, put the H5 in a backpack or hold it out of frame in hand with a lav mic. Snap visibly in front of the mic while on camera or get a clapperboard so you can sync the audio later. And then just pick which is the best audio track you have at the time. Maybe you get a bit of wind on the shotgun and want to swap to the lav, or the reverse.

Just one more thing, about the background noise and background sounds and music is it possible to delete them any other way besides using the Noise Reduction tool, could I use something like an EQ(Equalizer)? To lower the frequencies that are not my voice.

This turns into a lot of work and won't be what you want at the end of the day. You'd be better off to do a bunch of negative amplification on sections of audio where you're not speaking and see how it goes. EQ is a much more sweeping change generally than working individual sections. Kinda a garbage in, garbage out scenario.

 

[Pedro Nascimento]

That said, I think that you would benefit from doing both if you already have a lav and a shotgun. Why not record the audio track with the shotgun on the video cam, put the H5 in a backpack or hold it out of frame in hand with a lav mic. Snap visibly in front of the mic while on camera or get a clapperboard so you can sync the audio later. And then just pick which is the best audio track you have at the time. Maybe you get a bit of wind on the shotgun and want to swap to the lav, or the reverse.

The clapperboard would be perfect but its a lot to carry as I'm on my own, I am travelling, walking with the Canon 5D III on a Beholder DS1 while talking. I think the DS1 and the shotgun mic don't go with each other. It gets too heavy for the stabiliser...
Could you recommend me a cavalier mic that is of good quality, one that I can put on my shirt? The one I have is not very good.
Is there a lavalier specifically for outside recording that only records sound very close?[DOUBLEPOST=1484697107,1484697010][/DOUBLEPOST]

This turns into a lot of work and won't be what you want at the end of the day. You'd be better off to do a bunch of negative amplification on sections of audio where you're not speaking and see how it goes. EQ is a much more sweeping change generally than working individual sections. Kinda a garbage in, garbage out scenario.

I understand you! I think its better to work out the microphone input and get straight away a clear or the most clear audio as I can instead of recording anything and trying to work it out in post production.

 

[Tarmack]

I try to stick to Sennheiser gear myself but I don't have any experience with Lavs unfortunately. I've done remote recording with a Zoom H6 before, which honestly, just held out of frame and pointed up at your mouth could be enough with the built in mics on your H5.

Shure would be another good brand as far as recommendations. Their mics are industry standard and have been for years.