Revolutionizing Live Recordings: How CEDAR VoicEX Transformed Robert Sylvain’s Sound
Revolutionizing Live Recordings: Robert Sylvain’s Experience with CEDAR VoicEX
Robert Sylvain, a documentary sound recordist with over 30 years of experience, shares his experience with CEDAR VoicEX and how it has changed the way he handles live recordings.
The Challenge of Unwanted Background Noise
As a field recordist for film and video, Robert Sylvain has recorded dialogue on location all over the world and is often faced with the challenge of unwanted background noise. He explains, “Microphone selection and placement can only help you so much, and traditional noise-canceling software always has its drawbacks that compromise the sound quality of the source material.”
“Traditionally, the solution to noisy backgrounds has been to collect ‘room sounds’ to fill any gaps left by dialogue editing, which would otherwise leave a jarring silence, but this solution leaves the annoying noise intact. Too often, non-sound engineers imagine some magical software that can ‘learn’ the noise and eliminate it in post-production. That all changed with the introduction of CEDAR VoicEX.”
Discovering CEDAR VoicEX
Robert Sylvain learned about CEDAR VoicEX through Fraser Jones of Independent Audio, a company he has considered a supplier of the highest quality audio equipment for 25 years. He shares, “I first became acquainted with CEDAR Audio through Fraser Jones of Independent Audio… When CEDAR Audio launched VoicEX last fall, I knew it would be a paradigm shift.”
A Revolutionary Solution
“I did some interviews on the Foodie Roadshow ‘Getting Lost with Erin French,’ which I recorded at a remote-looking campground in Texas that was right off a highway. VoicEX almost completely removed the highway sounds and made it sound like a studio recording… I had to add crickets and a babbling brook to sell it as an outside sound. VoicEX also beautifully retained some of the subtleties, like breaths before words: the things that make dialogue sound human.”
Real-World Applications
“I also added the plug-in to Adobe Audition on my Mac M1, which works easily and provides live previews without any issues… With the new assignment, I arranged for a farmyard in Idaho to do a follow-up interview at the farm… The real test was removing the noise of the geese passing by, and not only did it remove the geese and preserve the human voice, but there was no discernible difference between the treated and untreated parts!”
“Another amazing story that uses a less obvious feature of VoicEX… I recently started working on a PBS Frontline documentary about last year’s mass shooting in Livingston, Maine. Many of our interviewees were all members of the deaf community, and we used interpreters during our fieldwork and interviews… VoicEX allows me to isolate slaps on the palm, slaps on the chest, etc. and other sounds so that the translation can be adjusted or even re-recorded while maintaining the original sound field environment.”
A New Era in Sound Production
“Simply put, CEDAR VoicEX has revolutionized the way I approach field recording. Welcome ‘New Rob’.”