Hi, We are filming some videos for training, and we work under hoods that have fans blowing. We want to do a voice-over, but you can hear the fans in the background. Is there a way to remove that noise so we only hear the voice-over?
Hi Sherie,
I don't think Storyline can do much for you as far as fixing audio. The audio editor seems to basically do chopping (editing) and adjusting volume.
You should probably use some professional audio software, like Adobe Audition, as a fan noise is usually going to be at a certain frequency or frequency range. Therefore, you need to adjust or silence a frequency, not the entire range of frequencies, like a volume knob would change.
If the audio file(s) are not too long, you could send them to me and I could try a quick Noise Reduction in Audition. Or if you want to send me a short one, we could test a Noise Reduction. I can't guarantee it will be perfect, but I could try.
try the IA adobe tool:
https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance
A long-running joke is also the 5 scariest words heard in film and video production: "We'll fix it in post." In other words, we expect the editors in post-production to somehow magically create a silk purse from the sow's ear we just dropped in their lap.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FixItInPost
When shooting in a high-noise environment, even if you have the talent adequately miced, you're still going to pick up too much of the background noise, making the narration track all but junk. You can tell just by watching some of the home-improvement programs on PBS (like "This Old House") when they are in a high-noise environment, they will switch to narration recorded in an audio booth and lay that over the top of the B-roll video, with its audio potted down.
If you can download Audacity at work (which is free), you can remove most of the unwanted noise using Noise Reduction, depending how prevalent it is.
Select a few seconds of the audio file without any VO, then go to Effects>Noise Reduction>Get Noise Profile.
Select the ENTIRE audio file and go to Effects>Noise Reduction>OK.
That should at least make it sound better.
Adobe Premier Pro has a whole variety of filters and you can even cut out specific frequencies. I once had to remove a door slamming in the middle of a voice over :). Generally, their "denoise" filter works well.
Good luck
