Suggestions to improve audio

[Kerrie]

I am working on my kindergartener's music show. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to improve the sound. As you can imagination it sounds distant. I usually just go to audio gain and increase the dB. But I was wondering if anyone had any other thoughts to improve the sound.

Thanks!

[Bobby]

What is your mic setup? If you are just using the on-camera mic, that can be pretty minimal esp. for longer distances.

I just got the Canon shotgun type mic for my HV-30 and used it last week for a granddaughter's piano concert. It was a definite improvement in sound quality, and especially helping cancel out the side wall reflected noise (it was in the teacher's home).

[Steve Grisetti]

Excellent suggestion, Bob! Getting focused, directional audio in the first place is always much better than trying to fix it in post.

That said, probably the best fix possible is to right-click on each clip on the timeline, select Audio Gain and then Normalize it.

You'll probably still get a lot of echoes and extraneous noise -- but at least it will sound fuller, Kerrie.

[Chuck Engels]

There are also some good audio filters in Premiere Elements.
The Audio Dynamics Effect has some great tools, and the Notch Filter works very well too.

Seeing that every bit of audio someone shoots can be very different it is extremely hard to give tips without hearing the audio first.
Even then most people still have to try many different settings to get the effect they are looking for, what sounds right to me might not sound right to you.
My suggestion is to try some of the audio filters, change the settings and see if you get an improvement. Not only might you help out your audio but you will learn some new things in the process

When you find something that works don't forget to either save it as a preset or use the Copy/Paste Attributes to apply the effect and settings to all of your clips

[Kerrie]

OK, I put a little clip in the gallery. The quality is not very clear. I wonder if I should have had it in d-avi first then made it a wmv.

All I have done with sound is increase the dB to 8. Any other suggestions? Also, this is the first time I have spliced together video from two cameras. Any feedback for improvement is appreciated! Thanks.
[wmvvideo]http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10355/katie_kindergarten.wmv[/wmvvideo]

[Kerrie]

Not sure why the video doesn't work, but here is the link http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... garten.wmv

[Bobby]

Cut down on the treble or use Lowpass to cut out some of the high, boost the bass (although not too much). Don't beat yourself up - it doesn't sound too bad for what it is.

[Helen]

Kerrie,
Sometimes when my audio is not too good, I have used the audio from both cameras at the same time to give it a little boost. It does not always work and you can get a lot of extra background coughs etc, but for some of the very quiet stuff it has worked.

[momoffduty]

Sorry, don't have any suggestions for audio, but was wondering if you tried out the Multi-Cam function in Pro yet? You did a great job syncing the two cams.

[Chuck Engels]

I fixed the links for you Kerrie, you have to bring up the video and then find the Embed link to use in your post.
The one you used is the most recent video posted so eventually it would have changed as soon as someone else uploaded a new one.

I have used the duplicate audio trick that Helen mentions, it can work very well.

[Kerrie]

Great suggestions everyone thank you! I am going to play around with the audio and adjust levels like you mentioned Bobby. I just burned it with the increased dB. It isn't too bad, but I can see the room for improvement.

The dual audio mentioned by Helen and Chuck is a great idea. When I was puttinng the two clips together the sound was so much richer. Too bad I didn't video the whole program with the second camera.

I think what frustrated me the most on this project was the clarity of the video. I usually use Canaon ZR800. Unfortunately I shattered the LCD screen and now it is difficult to use, except looking through it. I just used that camera as my 2nd camera. I went back to my old camera Elura. Everytime in premiere when I zoomed in on the kids, they became blurry. Time to shop for a new camera!

Thanks everyone for the help. Cheryl, I have pro sitting here, but too intimidated to use it. Have to look up the dual cam feature. Just so much to learn!

[momoffduty]

Kerrie, multi cam tutorial:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... torial.php


The tuts at Lynda are very good too. Takes you thru Pro from basic to advanced. Well worth the $.

[karri]

multi cam tutorial:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... torial.php

Chreryl, I played around with the multi cam feature ~ coolest.feature.ever! Well, so far anyway lol Now I just need another camera, for a real multi cam edit lol Thanks for the link!

[momoffduty]

Glad you like this feature, lots of cool stuff in Pro.