Salvaging GoPro Voice Recording

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

Hi there,

I’m completely new to Audacity and need a bit of help and guidance. I recorded my rowing crew race on a GoPro Hero 3 yesterday, and because to camera was very close to the oar, there is an overwhelming amount of noise coming from that. You can sort of hear a voice in the background which is what I’m interested in, and I’d like to know if it was in any way salvageable, and if so, what I should do to sort it out?

I’m on Mac OS X 10.7.5 and I have the latest version of Audacity (2.0.5) and although it’s not exactly working at the moment, I’m currently working on it! As for the file, I have an MP3 recording just here, and I’d greatly appreciate if you could let me know whether it’s even worth trying to get anything from it or not.

Thanks again!

2

There are five “DOWNLOAD” selections on that page. Which one should I use? I’m not interested in installing any software or becoming a subscriber. You should warn people whenever you use a service like this.

Koz

3

I can shortcut this a little bit. We can’t CSI rescue bad recordings. The chances of us being able to pull this out are almost zero. Sometimes in rare circumstances we can make damaged voices clear enough for someone who’s really good to transcribe the dialog into print, but mostly we make it a different distorted.

Let us know.

Koz

4

The one that says “Click here to start download from sendspace” and shows “Download BUCS.mp3” in the hover text:
https://fs12n4.sendspace.com/dl/0b7c8da270ca0c2bf4630b55e2ae90bf/5367e4e95a956450/kyjfys/BUCS.mp3


Gale

5

Got it.

That’s not “normal” distortion. I think the camera was set wrong or had some other problem. It’s not proximity to oars alone causing the problem. When the oar sound stops for a second several times in the clip, the voices in the background which should have been plain, simply quiet — like you were far from a microphone — are also distorted.

As I think about this… If you had the camera actually on an oar like that guy who connected one to the slide on his trombone, you could have award-winning slap/rumble wind noise. I have shoots like that [raising bloody hand]. Microphones do not like that, but that still does not account for the voice distortion.

There is no show. We can’t do anything for you.

You should as much as possible try out special effects shoots before you commit to them. I know that runs counter to the GoPro commercials, but they don’t tell you about the crashes, do they?

That’s the YouTube video. GoPro Disasters.

“This is the inside of my dog…”

Koz

6

Apologies, I didn’t double-check what it’d look like when you open the link, and as it’s a provider that’s recommended in the help section of this forum, I assumed it would be ok to use it.

I can shortcut this a little bit. We can’t CSI rescue bad recordings. The chances of us being able to pull this out are almost zero. Sometimes in rare circumstances we can make damaged voices clear enough for someone who’s really good to transcribe the dialog into print, but mostly we make it a different distorted.

Let us know.

Koz



Got it.

That’s not “normal” distortion. I think the camera was set wrong or had some other problem. It’s not proximity to oars alone causing the problem. When the oar sound stops for a second several times in the clip, the voices in the background which should have been plain, simply quiet — like you were far from a microphone — are also distorted.

As I think about this… If you had the camera actually on an oar like that guy who connected one to the slide on his trombone, you could have award-winning slap/rumble wind noise. I have shoots like that [raising bloody hand]. Microphones do not like that, but that still does not account for the voice distortion.

There is no show. We can’t do anything for you.

You should as much as possible try out special effects shoots before you commit to them. I know that runs counter to the GoPro commercials, but they don’t tell you about the crashes, do they?

That’s the YouTube video. GoPro Disasters.

“This is the inside of my dog…”

Koz

Thanks for the detailed answer, I expected this to be mission impossible, but I wanted to make absolutely sure there would be no stone left unturned. The GoPro was in its waterproof case and placed on the rigger, which definitely did not help with the sound recording. I wasn’t actually planning on using it to record what I was saying (we all know the micro is utter shite and I certainly don’t use my GoPro for the sound quality), but my phone died and this is the only thing that was recording, so I was wondering whether we’d be able to get anything from it.

Lesson learnt, though, I’m buying a portable charger for my phone…!

7

Yes we do recommend it (though it’s on the edge of being acceptable). As on all sites that have many different download buttons and links, you have to look very carefully to figure it out.


Gale

8

And to be clear, once Gale found the right button, the download worked perfectly. So it does work, we may need a little push. Koz

9

So this is an extraordinary circumstances shoot. It’s still true that the instant you graduate to a more serious shoot, you cast off the camera built-in sound. There is a sister posting to this one where someone did a separate-sound shoot almost by accident. After we solved a sync issue or two, it worked out pretty well. It’s like walking into a room and finding yourself having lunch with the Big Kids.

my phone died and this is the only thing that was recording

You’re doing something I’ve advocated for a long time. Most people have a sound recorder in their pocket. You just have to keep it from ringing at the wrong time. Do you do anything to keep it from trying to noise-reduce in real time? Nothing like having theatrically valid background noises wish and gargle in and out during dialog.

Hollywood is struggling with configuration issues. Digital cameras can have very good sound recording, but most camera operators can’t run the camera and an eighteen foot fishpole at the same time.

Koz