2 Questions, one with Soundtrack and another with "polishing"

[Benjamindaines]

1 Is there a plugin I can download for Soundtrack express to take out tape hum (the high pitched sound from the motor in the camera) so I don't have to mess the the EQ?

2 Is there a program out there that will automatically adjust the hues, contrast and saturation to give the video a more professional / finished look?

--Much thanks

 

[Texas04]

Are you infering by having Soundtrack that you also have FCE?

 

[Benjamindaines]

Are you infering by having Soundtrack that you also have FCE?

Yes

 

[PegasusMedia]

--2 Is there a program out there that will automatically adjust the hues, contrast and saturation to give the video a more professional / finished look?

Is there a program? Yes, there are many. It's "automatically" that is the problem! the tweaks need to be made on a shot by shot basis, and it's as much an art form as a technical process. You'll have to learn to work it.

At the high end,there are people who make their living doing only this. Below that it is the job of the online editor. Final Cut actually has a great toolset for doing this. 3 way color corrector, levels controls, hue, brightness, saturation...there are plenty of tools in your video menu. Just be careful about tweaking your colors out of "legal" range. Use the Waveform Monitor/Vectorscope and stay within the limits. What looks great on a computer monitor is often out of the acceptable range of NTSC color.

 

[Sdashiki]

If you have access and the ability, have a TV monitor hooked up to your setup.

That way as you tweak stuff you can see what it would actually look like with a TV vs only your computer monitor.

TRUE pros have "studio monitors" little 13" tvs that cost as much as a 30"+ one does normally (sometimes ALOT more), because they are high resolution AND have alot of tweaks available for users.

In the end, color correction is in the eye of the beholder.

A "professional" look can be alot of things, whether it dropping the frame rate to something closer to 24p (film like) or adjusting the color hues of certain scenes to reflect something deeper.

its all up to you how you do your "look", but there is NOT a plugin that can uniformly color correct ALL your shots. For the simple reason that every shot is different, and a computer is NOT a set of human eyes.

 

[PegasusMedia]

Oh I forgot...for your other question. I don't use Soundtrack, but I can tell you that one of the best free programs ever is Audacity. It is an audio editor with an excellent & simple noise removal tool, in addition to loads of other great audio tweaks.

Another thought, though...if you hear the motor of the camera, you are obviously using the built in microphone. Don't do that. Invest in a real microphone. You will never, ever regret it.

 

[Benjamindaines]

Another thought, though...if you hear the motor of the camera, you are obviously using the built in microphone. Don't do that. Invest in a real microphone. You will never, ever regret it.

Yes, I know that and I would but... my camera doesn't have a mic input jack so I'll just have to make due until I get an HD cam.

 

[supersize]

As for the audio hum I have had some pretty good luck with sound soap.
It can work as a stand alone app or as a plug in in FCP.

 

[eXan]

2 Is there a program out there that will automatically adjust the hues, contrast and saturation to give the video a more professional / finished look?

There are some FCP plug-ins that automatically give you "a film look". I have a couple of those, but they are faaaaaar from being perfect. For really professional look, you have to do everything manually, maybe with little help from such plug-ins that give a film grain effect etc.