I know, it's a regularly discussed topic: removing mouth noises. Anything from clicks, incontinuities mid word, saliva etc. I've recorded about 15 minutes of voice over audio for a theatrical soundwalk. I've always been very keen on recording these voices very close mic, because of the intimacy that it brings to the soundtrack. It keeps the listener focussed and helps steering their view. Now the point is that I've always been doing it by hand (scrub+pencil in PT9). This has tought me a lot about recording and the human voice with all it's strange mechanics. But after recently purchasing Izotope 3 Advanced (love it!) I tried using the Declicker module in PT. It works very well, but sometimes a bit too well..
For example: in the current project the voice over starts very as 'general' and clean sounding guide, without any real character. This slowly evolves into a more 'human' voice, performance wise. So I also leave clicks in the recordings as well (near the end at least) a the sighing etc. Now I could just process every region with 1 preset or do a two-pass. And I could switch between processed and unprocessed via duplicate tracks, but still that doesn't feel very flexible or in control.
So, I made up and tried the following routine (in PT9 with cptk):
- Duplicate track (with everything)
- Select all regions on duplicate track
- Insert Hipass filter @400Hz on track (although tiresome, it helps find noises)
- Load Audiosuite version of Declicker with standard preset
- Select 'Output clicks only' and process 'create individual files'. This creates a sort of 'visual guide' to noises..
- Now select 'Tab to transients' and use tab to navigate to all 'clicks' (optionally I use 'strip silence' on long regions)
- I then scrub+pencil through everything in a rough first pass (deciding what needs to be kept in).
- Afterwards I do another pass (with headphones on) to get the softest ticks out.
It is a lot of work, but so far it works out pretty well! Although looking at all those remaining mouth clicks is a bit discouraging :( hahaha
Besides getting a talent that is less noisy, i really tried a lot of things, but the actor just kept clicking away..
Is there anyone here who has more tips?
BTW: I've also tested the realtime version of Declicker on the dialogue track, but the 'Delay Compensation Engine' cannot compensate the plug in.. which messes up timing, and devours resources..