I'm working on a short and the opening scene is of 3 teenagers playing Nintendo. The dialogue track is relatively clean (already removed clicks/pops w/Izotope RX) save for the constant clicking of the game controllers. The track was recorded with a Boom in a medium sized room. I'm not really sure how to bring the voices up and out front while not losing too much of the production sound of the game controllers. Also, there is some broadband noise on the track. Any recommendations on which to tackle first?
5 Answers
I read the question as you wanting to KEEP the controller sounds and lose the broadband stuff.
Usually my first tool there will be a multiband expander like the Waves C4. Expand 5-8db with a superfast attack and a moderately fast release. This will push your noise floor down while retaining all of the good stuff that sits out above it. It will have the side effect of reducing the room verb a bit as well.
If you're still having issues then some gentle denoising will help there as well.
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Oof, Rene, if you're right I totally misunderstood the OP's request..! Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 1:51
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Yes, the director definitely wants to Keep the controller. Thanks a lot. I have the c4 and will give this technique a try, and I'd like to have a bit of the room verb reduced anyway. Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 22:07
You tried dialogue in Mono? The mix is the key. Regards!
I'd try a surgical notch EQ first to reduce the clicks, then iZotope RX Declicker to see if that might help, but the clicks may be too long, loud, and pronounced for that to work. Broadband noise is best dealt with using a noise-print-based denoiser, like iZotope RX Denoiser.
Sounds like one of those very rare times when cardioid lavs would've been handy!
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1To add on to this, iZotope Spectral Repair comes in handy for stuff like this. I had to remove a ton of 3 Beeps that were bleeding from headphones during an ADR session and it worked wonders. I've recenty been working on a series that has a lot of gameplay, but they've been doing the picture without actually hitting the buttons. It just looks like they are. Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 0:05
definitely want to look at it in a spectral view. those clicks and noises might be very easy to remove, and then you can go back and replace with cleaner sounds.
Duplicate the tracks and have 1 eq and cleaned and boosted for dialogue, then just take the duplicates specifically for the production sound effects and try and pull all the dialogue out.
