Introduction

We've all seen, or more accurately heard, that slip of the tongue, that inadvertent expletive spoken in a moment of embarrassment, anger, or even playfulness that suddenly and instantly makes a great family clip a bit "X-rated." Now what? You can delete the scene, which works if there's nothing else happening at that moment that was worth keeping. But what if there was? What if the funniest moment or the most "memory worthy" moment happened just as someone was reacting to pain or embarrassment (or, yes, joy) with a "bad" word? Well, this is very fixable, thanks to the sound capabilities of Premiere Pro and the fascinating world of sound effects.

Have you seen such shows as the Discovery^® Channel's "Monster Garage" or "American Chopper?" Did you notice that whenever Senior at Orange County Choppers decides to vent at Junior, his string of curses always seems to coincide exactly with the sound of an pneumatic air wrench whirring or the sound of metal being cut, drilled, or welded? That's no coincidence, of course. The offending words have been dropped out of the soundtrack, and these other sounds from around the shop have been dropped in to cover up Senior's colorful language.

Now you can do this, too. This effect can be used to salvage clips that might otherwise be unusable (or at least in cases where the audio is unusable). It can also be used on any clip to add a comical effect to anyone's dialog, whether or not they are actually cursing a blue streak. It's an easy effect that's fun to do, and which produces an entertaining result.