WRITTEN BY KIRSTY YU
DIALOGUE EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
This is a module from Izotope RX that I’ve used quite a bit! De-bleed works just like its name. It reduces the unwanted sound that bleeds into an open mic. In one of the shows I worked on, they recast one of the lead characters after shooting. Before I could edit in the ADR, I had to remove his voice underneath any other dialogue. De-bleed works great in this situation!
De-bleed learns a bleed relationship between tracks. If you have two clips that bleed into one another, you can select both of them, and using RX Connect set it to “create individual files” with the “clip by clip” setting. You will see 2 file tabs in RX.
Choose the file from which you want to remove the dialogue bleed. That will be your active track. Then, you go to the de-bleed module and select the other one as your “Select Bleed Source” track. Following that, hit “Learn” and preview the result! If it sounds too artificial to you, you can always adjust “Reduction Strength” and “Artifact Smoothing.”
RX is a great tool, but be careful, as it’s easy to over process your recordings. It’s good to always audit your processing, adjusting as you go. While I use de-bleed, I’d rather use a small amount for reduction strength and then clean out the remaining unwanted voice by hand as opposed to going with a big amount reduction strength. With that in mind, I believe de-bleed can be useful in many ways!
If you enjoyed this blog, you should also check out:
LUNCH AND LEARN: IZOTOPE SPECTRAL REPAIR
IZOTOPE VOCAL SYNTH REVIEW
5 EASY STEPS TO AVOID QC REJECTIONS WITH IZOTOPE RX