Dialogue Editing

196 DAMAGE REPAIR
Figure 12-1 Small clicks typical of radio microphone trouble.
that you can easily zoom in to the click. On Pro Tools this is called
“Edit Insertion Follows Scrub/Shuttle.” You’ll be surprised how
diffi cult it can be to see a click. Common sense would say that a
relatively loud one would proudly display itself in the waveform, but
the nastiest of clicks can hide amid ambient noise and are found only
with a combination of scrubbing and enough experience to know the
telltale signs.
Zoom in closely enough to identify exactly what you’re removing.
There’s no point fi xing an area wider than needed. If the click is hard
to spot, you might want to place a comment or a temporary sync mark
at the location so you don’t lose it.
Find the room tone you’ll use to eliminate the noise. If the noise
occurs in a relatively boring stretch of tone, without rapid changes in
pitch, level, or texture, you can usually copy a small piece of tone
immediately adjacent to it and blast over the problem area. Make the
patch just a bit wider than the noise you’re covering to leave room for
crossfades and adjustments. If you’re copying a section of room tone
between two noises, leave a bit of extra, unused tone outside your
selection to provide a handle area and some “fudge space” after you
make the edit. (See Figure 12-2.)
If removing more than one closely spaced noise, don’t use the same
piece of room tone to repair both problems, as it may create a looplike
sound.