Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Recording App & Ambient Noice
Hi, is anyone aware of a recording app which can be used in a noisy location and has a feature to remove all ambient noise and just record the conversation clearly.
The typical usage scenario is -- students are getting interviewed about a survey in a public place such as a common room or coffee shop. There is one interviewer and one student or could be 2 or 3 students.
The app would be able to have a software feature where you only record the voices and enhance the removal of ambient noise generated more than 3 feet away from the speakers.
Comments
Dunno, but I'd like to....
No expert on this, but I would have thought a suitable mic and some EQ after the recording would get the job done. As far as an app doing the job....don't know, sorry.
well thanks for the replies. i thought i would ask just in case.
My limited knowledge would suggest a cardoid-pattern mic (because it's very directional) and a noise gate. I don't think there are any magic solutions though.
With the right effect apps, you could also get them to speak like the Exorcist!
tascam have a dbx noise reducer but it does not come in the little porta recorder. that one only has a low cut filter.
However,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct11/articles/app-works-1011.htm
Maybe it might be best if you record the best you can get with a good mic and then clean the audio afterwards? Maybe someone else can comment on this point?
Thats not the issue.
The issue is operational.
There will be RA's (research assistants who are grad students) who go out into the field to interview students about their experience in the courses. The solutions has to be easy to use and easy to manage.
That looks to be a very handy app. Thanks @telecode101.
Noise reduction is tricky, because noise covers the whole frequency spectrum, those frequencies you want rid of are also present in what you're trying to enhance.
I'm not sure what polar pattern an iPad mic is (possibly omni) but all I can suggest is to get the mic as close as possible without creating proximity effect (boomy sound, google if not sure). Good luck.
I had good results with Audioshare and aufx:push (preset: expander 2) as effect, (optional with a mic app as iaa input).
I have also had some good success recording in not so quite areas using my Zoom iQ6 microphone using Audioshare and Aufx:PeakQ and Push. Just experiment with the levels of the microphone as well to get a good mix between not to much gain on the mic but still loud enough to get a good signal.
@telecode101
While you can clean up this type of recording using Fabfilters, or some other gates and EQs - the basic rule is "Garbage In, Garbage Out". You are not asking something for something that is uncommon though - have a look at Izotope RX4 (2 versions priced at $350 and $1200). Especially in video recording, there is high demand for cleaning up audio (i.e. onsite interviews), but, as indicated by the price, the amount of coding required to give acceptable results is very involved.
While our brains are great at judging distance of a sound source in the real world, a microphone can only register sound pressure. If there is only a couple of dBs difference between the noise floor and what you want to record it becomes all the more difficult to do anything cleanup-wise. All the more challenging is that the noise floor you mention is being generated by human voice, which is the same frequency range as the one voice you want.
If you can't work out finding a better space to record in, an option may be in using a cardiod microphone. These "listen" in one direction, as opposed to the omnidirectional mic built into iDevices. Haq I know favors the ik bluetooth mic.
Probably not what you wanted to "hear", but it really just has to do with how microphones work - loud is loud. And taking away noise ios software-wise is going to take away from the quality of what you want to keep too.
And I don't want to discourage you - quite the contrary. At work I often deal with video interviews where the content is great (often shot in their office space making it all relevant), but the poor quality of the audio gets in the way of being able to focus on it. If you have to use an omni mic (like the one built in), you need to know it is designed to pick up EVERYTHING and choose the environment accordingly. Or, choose the right mic for where you need to record - and probably something like the ik mic, being wireless, might be the "easiest" option; it would probably require passing the mic back and forth but would give you a file that would be much easier to clean up on ios before publishing.
We humans just get so easily distracted - I'd like to see you be able to reach who you want with your interviews, and IMHO if capturing clean spoken words is the point, then proper mics/environments are the key.
Best of luck!
@wigglelights +1
A good gate fx with the audio in threshold set high enough to remain insensitive to ambience but low enough to capture the conversation going on in the room could do the trick , but the audio at the end of the chain may sound weird because of the gated input. This works fine for me when I record voiceovers or call center soundspots but this always happens in a more isolated environment and with close-up voice recording. Still, may be worth a try during field recordings too.
Hi,vocalive has a 'noise reduction' button in the settings which I use religiously.Its not perfect but does make a difference:)
+1
Soundsoap does wonders for cleaning up dialog.http://www.soundness-llc.com/products/soundsoap4/
never record in cafes or something ... U will get sounds from plates and cups and stuff
Noise gate sounds weird, u need noise to bleed through otherwise it sounds like a telephone conversation und you are not sure if u lost the connection because u hear nothing...
3 ppl talking, each with his own noise gate yes, 3 ppl talking into one mic with a single noise gate in a cafe won't work ...
Thanks for the input everyone.
just an fyi.. this does not have to sound good. i just has to sound audiable so that the person transcribing it can clearly understand what is being said and what the answers are. its not a pop song. its a research project that involves interviewing students in public halls and libraries.
+1 for cardoid mic. That coupled with a good noise gate or compressor can work magic in a noisy environment. Actually, just skip the noise gate.
Taking it out of the iOS domain, and after a recording has happened, I’m very impressed with Audacity’s noise reduction tool. It allows you to take a sample of noise — select a small chunk of audio that only contains the background noise with none of the desired signal — and then as a separate operation, it gets rid of all of that type of noise. It’s very effective.
Audition does the same very well, if you happen to have access to Adobe CC.
Has anyone suggested lapel mics?
Have used those when shooting video interviews in noisy places.