Drone audio

Video and Photo Editing
1

I have been heavily experimenting with trying to capture audio of what my drone is filming. Im just not a big fan of background music. Videos I make usually involve using recordings of marine VHF chatter. But what I need is some audio of the ship engines, tow lines creaking etc…

Ive had mixed success with having an insta 360go3 on a little tripod next to where Im standing near-ish the action. I had a spare rode videomic which I tried recording to a sony digital voice recorder but this seemed worse quality than the go3 and Ive become susceptible to people coming over for a chat. Im far too polite to tell people to “go away im recording” so that recording is written off :joy:

Im now researching if theres an editing tool anyone knows of that will isolate every sound from a recording and I will make a custom mount to attach a small recorder to the drone itself then split the audio afterwards. Willing to pay for software to do this if it works in a trial.

Whats everyones thoughts and ideas? What have you tried?

1 Like
2

Some video/audio editing software will allow you to isolate voices, or even background, from a soundtrack - and that might help with people coming to chat to you.

Davinci Resolve 19 (I think perhaps only the paid-for Studio version) does this really well.

If you have such an audio track you’d like me to try voice removal on, upload (as zip) and I’ll send back what I can achieve with Resolve.

3

Also - there’s this to consider : BBC SFX library now free!

1 Like
4

You could also try CapCut for voice isolation if Davinci Resolve only has it on the paid version.

1 Like
5

I knew CapCut can remove background to isolate voices, wasn’t sure that it also could remove voices to isolate background. :+1:

Edit: Although it’s totally logical that it can do. :laughing:

6

Could you not use sounds from an effects library like the BBC one mentioned or other locations and use them ? There is also a load of sound library sites that offer like a free session that you could use to download a few sound clips that you can just use. Often see clips of drone flights with the sound of waterfalls’ or birds etc that have not come from the drone or even from that location.

7

Im on fcpx so I dont fancy trying to have to use davinci resolve as well. Hoping for either some audio software to paly with or I wonder if theres a fcpx plugin.

Ive yet to make a mount and buy a small sound recorder that would do the job attached to the drone itself.

I also wonder if the wireless dji mic would have enough range for this task as Im pretty sure it can record to the controller as part of screen capture :thinking:

8

Appreciating the ideas so far. Giving me some things to think about as Im caught up in a load of train cancelations in London.

Going to have a good look and see what capcut is capable of.

Effects libraries may lack what Im after. There is no sound like a pilot asking a several thousand hp tug boat to push on a ship at 50% and having the large marine diesels spool up and rumble. If Im successful you will see/hear what I mean :+1:

9

It can do both but just checked and its a pro feature - so paid for version :man_facepalming: There is a work around - if you do the separation on your phone and play it back you can keep the separated soundtrack by doing a screen recording of the playback :man_shrugging: - bit of a faff though :grinning:

1 Like
10

Which has voice isolation. :man_shrugging: So, I assume voice removal.

2 Likes
11

I guess they have to be permitted to make some money. :laughing:

1 Like
12

Have you tried voice isolation on fcpx? Its not good.

13

Nope - won’t get me near the :apple: brands.

1 Like
14

It appears they’ve had it since June 22 … and it’s still no good?

Glad I have my :apple: stance, then. :wink:

15

Maybe I am missing something but a mic on the drone would record the noise from the propellers and not much else

1 Like
16

Lots of “mush”. :wink:

1 Like
17

is this radio chatter as you could maybe just record the audio off a radio with the mic next to the radio or a line in ?

Loads of cheap radio scanners around and the marine radio channels are listed online so easy to do.

18

I already do that. I used to record with a cable from a scanner to a sony digital recorder and a small bluetooth adapter for monitoring. Then got myself an Icom ID52 which does recording to SD card and bluetooth all in one unit. Plus can scan two groups at once or stay on one frequency and scan at the same time.

20240611_152947
20240611_1529473000×4000 2.67 MB

So now I have the sony recorder free to try and capture propper audio of ship engines etc… which is what im trying to solve to see if I can get a microphone onto the drone and edit out the propeller noise in post.

19

Nice bit of kit there

I know you can mask the drone noise out as I have seen Ken Heron do it on his YouTube clips and he did mention about it once on one of them some time back. But I do also think that if you get rid of the drone nose you may also get rid of the engine noise too as its a constant hum drum noise that a filter may think is just background noise too. Just not sure how it will work out what is what.

20

After some digging if I ever get home Im thinking of testing Audacity software and seeing if thats going to work for what I want. I just have to try and find a file I recorded to test it on. Still researching.

And if thats the case a DJI mic2 (just transmitter) is £89, is light and small and will record internally which I didnt realise. Several hours battery and 14 hours of storage. Not too expensive for a test.