I’m using Audacity 2.1.3 on my Windows 10 computer.
I’m getting additional light clicking noises during audio that I have created as follows. . .
Recording from a Yeti blackout microphone with the gain to 1/4 and the pattern to cardioid using replay video capture to create a .wmv file.
Bringing that file into Windows Media Player, and saving it as a .mp4 file so that it can be processed in Audacity.
In audacity, I can improve things greatly by first running it through the noise reducer with default params, and then running it through the low pass filter with a freq of 2kHz and a rolloff of 24 dB/octave. I’m not crazy about the effect that the LPF has on my voice, but I’ve come to terms with it. I export audio from audacity to create a .wav file.
Importing the modified audio back into Windows Media Player and then creating the file that I upload to YouTube.
After doing all of this, I still hear a level of noise in my audio that I would prefer to further reduce. The noise is most evident when I listen using my Ipad Mini 4.
I am uploading a particularly troublesome 10 second segment of this audio that is taken from my math video with 5 seconds of sample noise prepended. No audio processing has been done to this segment.
I have tried doing things with noise gate and de-clicker as well. The combo of noise reduction and LPF mentioned above seems to give the best results.
There’s a standing joke about how hard that stupid 20 second sound clip is. About a third of performers who try it do something wrong.
A very common problem is two seconds of Room Tone that features scratching of legs, rearranging of shirts or shuffling of furniture. It’s freeze and hold your breath. You need to get this right because if you publish, ACX is going to use that segment to determine whether or not you pass quality control.
That’s what I thought. I applied the AudioBook Mastering corrections and a very gentle noise reduction and your clip meets ACX AudioBook requirements. See sentence two-thirds down.
I know you’re not reading for audiobooks, but that’s a pretty good test to pass for anything else.
And I don’t hear any clicking.
So something between the initial reading and your own quality control is actually doing that. It’s also possible your recording computer is doing that when it feels like it. Those are the most fun to fix.
I have a couple of production comments, too, but that’s later.
Getting closer. The ticks are far worse on laptop speakers or any sound system that tends to punch high, crisp tones. This brings us back to your comment of getting rid of them by muffling the performance. I’ll catch up to you any minute now.
Is your microphone a Yeti Pro? “Yeti Pro” is a proper name and it’s the more expensive of the two Yeti models. I have seen the regular Blue Yeti listed as a “Pro Yeti,” which causes, I’m sure intentionally, no end of confusion. There is no Pro Yeti.
Does your microphone have provision for an XLR connection on the bottom?
Thank you so much for all of the attention that you’re giving to my issue!
I’m thinking that the word “crackling” better fits what I’m hearing than “clicking”. I’m glad that you’re able to hear what I’m talking about. The part that comes after my sentences, I can generally hand edit out, though doing that is a bit tedious. It’s the portion that occurs during my speech that I don’t know how to manage at all.
I’m always amazed how products go to such lengths to hide their vernacular names. The box that my mic came in says “Yeti Blackout”. The Amazon link that I purchased it from refers to it as “Blue Yeti USB Microphone - Blackout Edition”. The Amazon link itself is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N1YPXW2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. This mic was rated very well and I was hoping that the $130 that I spent would buy me out of my problems.
I don’t see any XLR connection on this mic. Just a USB and headset port.
I agree that this crackling is more obvious when listening through some devices vs. others. I often think I have a good result when I listen on my PC or external speaker. But, then when I put it up on YouTube (thinking that I’m done) and listen to my Ipad, the crackling comes through.
I ran this 20 second clip through Audacity’s noise reduction using default params and then added it to an unrelated math video sequence in Windows Media Player to create a .mp4 file that is available at https://youtu.be/8JsthqkCx1g on YouTube. I can still hear some crackling that I’d like to get rid of.
I’m eager to hear any other comments that you have. Please don’t feel like you need to limit yourself to my questions. As I work on these math videos, I’ve been begging my friends for actual critiques instead of the usual, but useless “sounds great.”
Noise Reduction works on noises that don’t change over time such as fan noise, or microphone hiss. It doesn’t do well with noises that change such as background voices … or crackles.
I was hoping that the $130 that I spent would buy me out of my problems.
So you have a Yeti with racing stripes. The Yeti Pro goes for $270.
That sentence suggests you had this problem with other microphones or techniques. Describe that.
We can do two directions at once. I boosted the background noise from your last post. Ignore the hiss. We know what that is. Attached. What in your room could be causing the rumble sound? If you really pay attention, could this be your computer fan? You can go a good long way toward quality reading by finding the cause of that rumble. It could be air conditioning. Refrigerator?
Way down at the bottom of the list:
Are you recording in a room with fashionable bare-wood floors and plain white walls? It’s not really crushing important, but there is a slight “recording in a kitchen” sound behind your voice. We can’t take echoes out of a performance, so it’s you, the microphone and furniture moving pads.
This is a bit overkill, Starbucks optional, but the furniture moving pads are not a terrible idea. For the price of one or two Acoustic Foam panels, you can get a box of moving pads.
Start by putting one on the table or desk.
One of the forum performers made a ‘pillow fort’ out of pushed together Home Depot plastic pipes covered with blankets, quilts and duvets. Same effect. I believe she’s a published audiobook presenter now.
In case you missed the direction this is going, If the computer fan is causing noise problems and you used to have electrical noise problems and you could be having USB noise problems now, the solution is keep the microphone and room but change the computer.
You don’t have to change it to another computer. You can use a personal recorder, iPhone or iPod.
There’s another handy-dandy solution. If you think the rumble is coming up through the table or desk (lift the Yeti while speaking and see if it goes away) that’s simple to fix.
Doesn’t have to be Stephen King, but it does have to be heavy.
Recording from a Yeti blackout microphone with the gain to 1/4 and the pattern to cardioid using replay video capture to create a .wmv file.
And you’re doing that because your show is really video and we’re processing the voice part.
Do you get the crackles if you capture a voice clip with nothing running but Audacity recording directly from the Yeti? Or is that what the last clip was?
do tell us what the original problem was that you were solving with the Yeti.
And it would still be really good to know that.
Regular Yeti microphones (even ones with racing stripes) are a slave to the quality of the USB connection. The computer people make services as cheap as possible depending on the microphone to bail them out. The microphone is made as cheap as possible depending on the quality of the USB connection to bail them out. If you have a perfect storm, nobody is bailing anybody out and the sound gets noisy.
Yetis feature prominently in forum postings, and even though we’ve developed some fancy filters for one or two of the noises, we’ve never actually fixed one.
In general, once you start having troubles like this we recommend trying the microphone on another computer. If the recording is clean, your computer has troubles, if they’re both noisy, the microphone may have troubles. Yetis can have a third problem, too. The second computer can have one of the other Yeti noises.
Did you keep the microphone receipts and shipping information?
