There’s nothing worse than playing back your latest video footage for your film and it’s tarnished with overbearing background noise. But fear not, if you’re new to Vegas Pro, we will show you how to remove noise in Vegas Pro with these simple steps.
Preventing background noise in the first place is also a preference for using a range of techniques to minimize noise creeping into your audio.
In today’s article, we show you how to prevent background noise whilst filming, as well as how to remove the background noise in Vegas Pro.
Let’s jump into it!
Also, do you use other editing software? If so, here’s how to remove background noise in the other video editing software:
How to prevent background noise when filming
Before you begin filming, there are a few precautions you can take to ensure that you pick up as little background noise as possible.
Here they are.
Remove any items that are prone to causing background noise
When filming, especially inside there are a few appliances that will cause a lot of background noise that your microphones will pick up. These are items like clocks, fridges, washing machines and so forth.
When filming inside, in these smaller rooms, ensure that anything that may leave an underlying buzzing noise that interferes with the standard audio, and even the dialogue is switched off, or at least removed from the room.
This will help prevent additional background noise from creeping in.
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Directional microphones
These are perfect for reducing background noise pretty swiftly. The reason we’ve included this is that these directional microphones have much less sensitive off-axis audio signals, which means they are much more likely to avoid additional background noises.
Directional microphones are perfect for shooting closeups, documentaries and interviews where you just want to pick up the subject’s dialogue.
Reduce the number of live microphones
The more open microphones you have, the louder the background noise increases. On average, per open microphone, the overall background noise will increase by 3db.
Working on a scene with multiple lines from different characters is pretty difficult to manage manually on set. Many sound professionals will use equipment like MixAssist, where they automatically open and close each microphone as the actors deliver their lines.
This helps reduce the background noise dramatically and allows the sound professionals to focus on the overall mix of the sound.
You may also be interested in A filmmakers guide to buying the best microphone for filmmaking
How to remove noise in Sony Vegas
Here’s a step by step guide on how to remove background noise in Sony Vegas. Follow these steps to help remove background noise efficiently and successfully leave you with smooth sounding audio.
In this process, we look at how to reduce the background noise with these four options.
Reduce the volume
Simply reduce the volume on your clip. Low-level noise will often sit within the audio and at the lowest levels of volume. To combat this, simply lower the overall volume levels, and it will clean up any of the low, below the floor background noise.
To lower the volume simply, slide the volume in the track slider to the left, which will lower the volume of all audio events within the track. Then click the top of the track, and drag the gain level down to balance it.
Step 2: The Noise Gate
Following the first option and lowering the volume doesn’t always remove the background noise, so you have to dig a little deeper.
This is due to the background noise being closer to the volume of the voice, and by lowering the overall volume, it becomes inaudible.
If the background noise is a continuous hiss, it’s worth exploring the possibility of using the Noise Gate.
The Noise Gate essentially removes the sound below a certain volume, and background noise volume is lower than the audio you wish to include in your edit. Therefore using the Noise Gate is the solution.
To use the Noise Gate, click the Track FX in the header, and the Audio FX window will appear. Now click the “Noise Gate”.
Now the controls for this will appear. Increase the threshold level; this sets the threshold for the overall volume level.
The Noise Gate will then remove all sound that’s below the threshold.
One thing to note. Occasionally the audio you wish to keep varies in volume and has the potential to be lower than the Noise Gate, therefore eliminating it. You must be careful and review your work and ensure there’s no loss in the key audio. Usually, this isn’t a problem, but it’s something worth considering whilst reviewing your background noise reduction.
Now you need to play the clip and review it to ensure you can hear where the audio drops out. You can then use the Attack Time and Release sliders to control the dropout points. This will help you keep in the sound you want to keep hold of.
Make sure you adjust correctly to keep clean sound, especially key dialogue; you don’t want that dropping out!
You may also like to read: Sony Vegas 18 – Our In-Depth Review
Cover the noise
If you’re still struggling with removing the noise, it’s worth looking at covering the unwanted noise with other sounds or even a backing track.
It’s the perfect option for commercials and YouTube videos, but harder in film. But you can adjust the noise and change the background sounds to lower the effect of the background noise.
One thing to note is that a little bit of noise isn’t a bad thing. If you remove all background noise, it can leave you distorted audio balance and make your movie sound strange. I’ve made this mistake in my early career, and it’s worse than overbearing background noise.
Final Thoughts
Make sure to play around with these different methods until you find the one that suits you best. Removing background noise is an art, as there is a fine balance to ensure you get it right.
Make sure you use the tips above to put in a noise prevention plan to ensure that you have as little noise as possible when going into post-production.
We hope this article on “How to remove noise in Vegas Pro” was useful to you. Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments. We love to hear from you!
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Happy editing!
