iMovie edit

[Zoom]

Hi all,

I have a lot of gopro videos that have loud clicking noises on them. Common problem apparently. I can put them on iMovie and detach the audio and can see all the very short peaks that are the clicks. How can I get rid of them or flatten them? I know I can put music on instead but I still want the other ambient noises. I'm a newby with editing video but have looked all over and found no solution. I tried to use Audacity but Apple won't let me . I have a Macbook Pro 2009 using El Capitan.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of iMovie?
-Which model of GoPro?
-Is the issue present on all video files taken with the GoPro?
-Have you contacted GoPro Support and what was their answer?

C

 

[Zoom]

Hi Cory,

Thanks for your reply.
I have iMovie 09 Version 8.0.6 (821). GoPro Hero 2. Didn't know about gopro support but a quick look found nothing.
The clicking noise is mechanical and is quite repetitive in a mountainbike movie but even in skiing movies from a chest mount. There are stories of it being one of the buttons and the fix is to take it apart and glue some foam pad to it.

Whatever the cause, with a bit of work I can remove the spikes as they are easily identifiable. I just need to average the short sharp spike to what is on either side of it. Just like getting rid of a scratch in a photo by averaging the surrounds. I thought it would be a fairly basic feature to get rid of audio scratches when transferring an LP to CD.

Can iMovie do it? Or what will?

Thanks

Zoomer

 

[Cory Cooper]

Thanks for the additional information.

I did a search and found the solution your were speaking of: GoPro Fanatics - Littlezeke77. Here is a post that explains the fix: GoPro 2 Rattle Fix. You can try the fix listed there at your own risk.

It can be very time consuming and tedious to remove clicks from the audio track of an iMovie file. You can do it externally using things like Audacity, but then you have to reimport the audio track and sync it back with the video. There are plug-ins that will perform that function, but they aren't compatible with iMovie 09, and can be semi-expensive.

What issues were you getting with Audacity - what do you mean by "I tried to use Audacity but Apple won't let me."?

C

 

[Zoom]

Thanks Cory,

I have seen that permanent fix and will probably try it, even though it's a bit DIY. When I first took video and noticed the noise I thought it was to do with strapping on my backpack flapping or else the gopro mount to the chest harness. Over time, I'm 62 so not doing self filming all the time like a teenager, I tried to eliminate all the possibilities. Once I finally tried to edit some of my favourite footage I found on the net how common the problem was and the fix that you sent. I'll take it apart next week.

I still have the problem of the existing footage though. I am happy to spend some time on it as it is unrepeatable. Now that you say about re-syncing after using something like Audacity I am thinking that isn't what I need. I did download it in the supposed mac version but then I was told it was not supported as it was from an untrusted source or something so I deleted it. Maybe what I need is just to pay for a proper movie editing piece of software and forget about iMovie but I think iMovie does all I need except for getting rid of these peaks. I also have Gopro Studio of course but I couldn't see how that was going to do it either. I may be missing something as I'm not a digital native by any means.

Neil