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I'm using a field recording of speech that was recorded in a very bright lively room. There's a lot of this room sound on the recording and wonder if anyone has some recommendations for getting rid of some of that room sound and retaining a pretty "natural" sound. In other words, I'm trying to make a very "roomy" recording sound deader.
Thanks.
Blacklab

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fourone3 Thu, 03/27/2008 - 11:33

Sorry Blacklab - I don't meant to hijack the thread and ask more questions, but I'd like to know just in case something like this pops up while I'm working on something.

So sampling the room is pretty much out of the question. Would it be safe to assume that a good noise reduction unit/plug-in would help with this situation?

Cucco Thu, 03/27/2008 - 12:05

No.

Broadband noise reduction will not help with reducing impulses from a recording. If it were constant hum or some other similar non-correlated audio signal, yes. However, with a signal that generates impulses (voice and echo), trying to remove this with NR tools will sound absurd and silly.

Of course, I'm operating on the assumption that your room sound is referring to the echo you mention due to a very "lively" room.

RemyRAD Thu, 03/27/2008 - 15:52

I had to deal with this on a few occasions.

Here is one of the ways I was able to improve this.

DBX made a multiband downward expander for dynamic range enhancement of other overly squashed material. It was called the 3BX. It would exaggerate the dynamic range too much and I would then throw a limiter (broadband 1176) on top of that. It would greatly reduce the reverberation. But I believe you can still accomplish that in software provided you also frequency weight it?

I think the best that you can expect is only a slight reduction?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Cacacas Fri, 03/28/2008 - 17:45

I had some room noise that wouldn't go away. I recorded the room noise and reversed the phase relationship, and it went away. However, any slight modification to the room noise recording made the phase inversion fail. I used to EQ it out manually, but that didn't work out so well last few times. Good Luck.
On another note, I don't mind a good sounding recording with room noise. It adds intimacy to some guitar and light vocal tracks.

Blacklab Tue, 04/01/2008 - 09:50

Thanks all, for the information. Here's the story of the recording...I had a chance to interview some elusive characters and had to do it in a very bouncy room with no chance of close-miking. So...I got great interviews with a LOT of room reverb. Very good sound quality, but a lot of verb. Yes, even a LITTLE reduction of that room sound would be great. I've tried sampling the room and removing that sound and, you're all right, it sounds ridiculous. I guess what I was hoping for was a "magic plugin"...the Cedar plugin is a little out of my range, but I got some good ideas from you all. I'll let you know...
Again, very good input and I really appreciate it!
Blacklab