Preventing Audio Bleed in Recording

Audio Production
1

I am currently using Shure SM58’s to record through a Scarlett 18i8 media interface into my computer where I use Audition 2024 to record. I record each microphone into its own track. I have to turn the gains up almost all the way on the media interface, but I am able to get a good, high quality (my opinion) sound on the recording. The two microphones are about 4 feet away from each other and facing in opposite directions. I basically sit across from the person I’m interviewing with a round table in between us. After recording, on my track the voice of the person I’m interviewing will also be present but at a much lower frequency. It’s also true that on the interviewee’s track my voice is also present but at a much lower frequency. I have had some success utilizing the noise gate in the editing process to remove the voice of the other person on each track, but sometimes this can make the audio sound choppy based on the frequency that things get picked up. Playing with the release, hold, and attack don’t seem to alleviate that choppiness when it does happen. I know I could turn the gains down a bit on each microphone but I am nervous that if I do that the recording will be too faint.

You can hear this in the audio sample that is attached. The faint voice is mine and the louder voice is the person I’m interviewing. The file is a snippet of the interviewee’s track.

Is it possible to eliminate the audio bleed in Audition 2024 in the recording process so that I can save time and quality in the editing process? Or is this only something I can only take care of in the editing process?

2

Thanks for the question. Yes, there are some great solutions to mic bleed. You can make sure the mic is as close to the speaker as possible and adjust positions so that the speaker is as far away as possible. The main thing here, however, is to setup a precise noise gate. This video should help!

3

Thanks Mike! I really appreciate your reply and I have really valued a lot of your tutorial YouTube videos. They’ve been a big help for me in learning Audition and recording methods.

I have tried moving the microphones further apart and as close to each speaker as possible, but that doesn’t seem to remedy the issue. I wonder if the only solution to reducing/ eliminating the mic bleed in the recording process is to upgrade from SM58’s to SM7b’s. That would be a bit of a hit to our non-profit budget, but I’m curious if you or others have thoughts on that.

In the meantime, I can continue to use the noise gate as this video describes in the editing process.