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Adding noise back in post-production may seem counterproductive to denoising, but it can be beneficial in certain situations where overly clean audio can harm the scene.
This type of editing is not to do it just because you can do it. It's to help the viewer become immersed in the scene.
How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how to improve your audio for your YouTube videos. This series is designed to help content creators, filmmakers, and audio engineers working for clients to enhance their audio quality for YouTube, gain more followers, build brand trust, and create better content for their content marketing strategies. In today’s video, we’ll be discussing room tone. So let’s get started.
As I mentioned earlier, today’s focus is on learning about room tone and its significance in any recording, whether it’s for YouTube, short films, business videos, or any other content. It’s essential to record room tone. Now, you might wonder, what exactly is room tone? Room tone refers to the sonic qualities of any space you’re recording in. It can be a small room, medium room, big room, or even outdoor locations such as forests, beaches, cities, or the ocean.
Now, let’s jump into Pro Tools, where I can demonstrate how room tone can improve your audio for your projects. Room tone offers several benefits. First, it helps with denoising your audio during post-production. Second, it allows you to add depth and realism to your recorded dialogue. It’s important to note that room tone doesn’t necessarily have to be captured inside an actual room. It refers to the ambient sound characteristics of the recording environment.
Let’s begin by discussing how room tone can significantly enhance your audio for YouTube content through a process called denoising. I have another video specifically dedicated to denoising, which will be released in a couple of days. I’ll provide a link to that video in the card above and the description below. For now, let’s cover the basics.
Denoising is the process of removing unwanted noise from your audio. In the following example, you’ll notice there’s a strong signal, but towards the end, you can hear a slight hum in the background, which is actually my computer. I recommend wearing headphones to better hear the noise. Let’s isolate that part and listen to it.
In certain cases, the noise may not pose a significant issue, especially when the voice signal is strong, as in this example where the microphone is close to my mouth. However, problems can arise if the room noise is loud, such as from an air conditioner, or if the noise source is near the microphone, like in this case with my computer. In order to denoise a clip, the quickest method is to allow the program, in this case, iZotope’s RX Voice Denoise, to learn the noise profile. To do this, I’ll play a pre-recorded sample of the room noise, which captures the natural sonic qualities of the room I recorded in. This helps the program learn what the noise sounds like.
Once the profile is learned, we can apply it to the source audio, in this case, my voice, using the preview function. The program analyzes the waveform, identifies the noise profile, and removes it. After finding the desired settings and achieving the desired noise reduction, simply hit render to obtain the denoised clip. To verify that the noise has been effectively removed, you can observe the waveform. When denoising is undone, the waveform increases, indicating more noise. Redoing the denoising decreases the waveform, signifying reduced noise.
Adding noise back in post-production may seem counterproductive to denoising, but it can be beneficial in certain situations where overly clean audio can harm the scene. For instance, if you’re shooting a scene in a forest and you denoise the audio excessively, it may sound unnatural and detached from the environment. To address this, you can record room tone from the forest and add it back in in post-production, adding room noise can help give the vocals a bit more controlled noise bed to establish realism for your viewers. For example, let’s listen back to our now denoised audio.
“How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how to improve your audio for your YouTube videos this year.”
So in this situation… Oh, geez, let me bring that back, sorry. In this situation, it makes sense because this is more of a podcast tutorial/how-to video. I’m very close to the microphone. You can actually see the microphone and how close I am. So it makes sense that this wouldn’t have room noise under it. But let’s say, just for tutorial purposes, I wanted to add room noise to help add realism or depth or life back into the cleanup audio. What we can do is take our room tone that we pre-recorded during the recording here and lay it underneath, just like this, underneath the source audio on a new track. Play it back and hear what happens.
“How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how to improve… How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how…”
So as you heard, it now has noise, but it’s too much noise. And this is the magic of adding noise in post if you want to liven up your audio. You can control it a lot easier. In this situation, there’s too much noise here. I can literally just take it down, essentially denoising it again, but it still keeps the noise in there, just in a much more controlled environment.
“How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how to improve… How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with Inlustris Audio, and today we’re going to continue the short mini-series on how…”
If I wanted some noise in the background, say, this is computer noise, so say I wasn’t sitting in my studio, I was actually in a server room. Lots of computers, lots of noise. Naturally, I would probably put this in there because it just makes sense to what the viewer is seeing. This type of editing is not to do it just because you can do it. It’s to help the viewer become immersed in the scene. If, again, going back to the forest example, you’re shooting something in a forest, but there’s no forest noise, no ambiance, no birds, no wind, no trees moving, it’s going to sound very unnatural, especially if your vocals sound very clean. That’s because it’s not supposed to sound very clean. In a forest, there’s supposed to be noise around.
Whereas if I’m sitting and doing something like this, but you hear a lot of noise in the background, it’s probably not going to be the best because this is a lot more sterile of an environment. It’s a lot more professional, and you expect it to sound clean. So it all depends on what your content is. But if you need to add noise to add realism, this is a very easy and honestly cheap and free way to do it. If you’re recording anyways, record noise. You can always use it in post. And if you don’t, you have room tone to use later in later projects if you want to use it.
So that just about wraps up today’s video on room tone. If you got any value from this video at all, please do me a favor, scroll down, and hit like and subscribe. It helps this channel out and enables me to continue creating more free content like this for you guys, so you can improve the audio in your videos or content for your content marketing strategies. If you don’t want to miss out on any new videos, I post twice a week: once on Tuesday and another on Saturday. Go ahead and click the little bell icon as well, and YouTube will notify you whenever I release a new video.
If you still have any questions about room tone, such as how to record room tone or why room tone is important, feel free to let me know in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to respond as soon as I can. Thank you all so much, and as always, I will see you in the next video!
