Quieting the Loud Part of Clips (iMovie Mac)

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Quieting the Loud Part of Clips (iMovie Mac)

I make videos that feature me using loud power tools.

Sometimes the camera is on me or near me, so the volume level of the clip is fixed, and I can easily lower it so viewers don't get their ears blasted.

But many, many of my clips are me moving with the camera still on a tripod. On these clips, the volume level goes from very quiet to very loud repeatedly like a big stretched out sine wave. The problem is the few seconds when the volume is at it's max. It is WAY too loud.

So I'm looking for the best way to quiet down those peaks.

One option is to just quiet the whole clip's volume. I used to do this with footage from my GoPro. So it would be a little quieter in the quiet parts but the loud parts wouldn't blow your ears off. But I've recently switched to filming with an iPhone and this doesn't really work any more. The volume drops so dramatically as I'm walking away from the camera. By the time I'm 20 feet away, you can't hear the lawnmower at all. It's crazy. So I can't lower the volume of the whole clip because 90% of the clip is already too quiet. I just need to even out the loud parts.

The other option that I'm working on right now, is splitting every clip around each loud part so I can lower that individual loud part's volume separately from the rest of the clip. There are two problems with this technique. First, I probably have over 100 loud parts I have to quiet. Just on one 12 minute video, this is taking FOREVER!

Second, you can hear the ambient sound level drop and go back up, it's not a smooth transition. So it's not a great solution independent of how long it takes to implement.

Are there any other tricks I can try?

I was hoping there was an audio effect that would help this but I don't see anything useful for this problem.

Mac mini (2018)

Posted on Sep 2, 2023 4:06 AM

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Answer 1

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Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Sep 2, 2023 5:58 PM in response to l008com

Hi,

Put your clips in the timeline. Expand the timeline out with the slider located at the top right of the timeline. Click on the Settings button above and to the right of the timeline and use the slider in the box to make the clips larger.

Now, put your cursor at the beginning of the loud portion of the audio. While holding down the r key, press down on your track pad or mouse and drag your cursor through the loud portion. A yellow box, outlining the loud portion, will form as you drag along.

You can adjust the sound inside of the yellow box without affecting the rest of the clip. Put your cursor on the horizontal volume bar and pull down to eliminate the yellow and red spikes.

Since you have over 100 loud parts the task will unavoidably be a bit labor intensive. No other way to do it unless you lower the volume of the entire clip.

-- Rich

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Answer 2

l008com Author

Level 1

92 points

Sep 2, 2023 6:20 AM in response to l008com

Just so you can see what i'm dealing with, this is a very typical clip. And my videos are made of tons of these. I'm currently using the second option in my original post and it's crazy, there are so many peaks, this is adding HOURS to my editing time. There's probably 200 peaks to split and lower.

If theres no better solution, next time I'll just go back to lowering the volume of the whole clip and just let the quiet parts be really quiet.

Another solution i have considered is using another camera to record and just using it's audio. I could keep it near me, or in a spot thats more consistently distant from the machine to keep the volume more stable. But the problem with that plan is syncing up all the audio and video. These videos are made of 100 very short clips, sometimes more. There's no sane way to record audio from one source and video from another, and sync them all up. Not without adding a slate, tons of time to my shooting and even more time to my editing.

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Answer 3

l008com Author

Level 1

92 points

Sep 2, 2023 9:34 PM in response to Rich839

Hmm thats similar to what i was doing splitting the clips, but a bit faster way to do it, a little easier then splitting so many clips. So I guess thats the best I'm going to be able to do.

Its a shame imovie doesn't have a feature built in to line up multiple clips or clips and audio files based on actual timestamps. That would make recording audio on a separate device a lot easier to integrate into the project.

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Sep 3, 2023 2:05 PM in response to l008com

You could try using a dog training clicker to create reference points while recording. Its a little like the clappers they use for Hollywood movies to create a clapping noise that delinates the scenes.

— Rich

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Answer 5

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Sep 3, 2023 1:16 PM in response to l008com

If you do this kind of work alot you might want to look into getting a body mic, like videographers use at weddings to record the vows and speeches, etc.

— Rich

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Answer 6

l008com Author

Level 1

92 points

Sep 3, 2023 1:45 PM in response to Rich839

I have thought about that but its going to be nearly impossible to line up that audio with the clips. Its just machine noise, not like speaking, so theres no easy reference to line the audio up to.

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Quieting the Loud Part of Clips (iMovie Mac)

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