Alternative ways of removing noice from MP3 voice recordings?

Special Interest Groups Podcasting
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If I’ve posted in the wrong place, please let me know and I’ll correct it.
I"m currently taking voice recordings from various poeple and there’s allot of background / hushing noise constant throughout the recordings. I currently use the method of selecting some of that noise >> getting the ‘Noise Profile’ in Effects >> Noise Reduction >> then selecting the whole recording and removing the noice from the background by usiing noise reduction again… I then Compress then Normalize the track.

When reducing the noise I have experimented allot with the ‘Noise Reduction’ value to remove the noise… Currently it’s near 20… But…

This does a great job of removing the noise, but the problem I have is that it also reduces the quality of the actual voice recording. The Voice recording gets an electronic sound to it and the quality just isn’t as good.

I’m asking if there is an alternative way of removing he rest of the noise while keeping the sound quality of the voice?
I have watched videos on snipping from the Spectogram and I don’t think this is a suitable method because the noise in my recordings are constant throughout the file and not just intermittent bursts.

This may be an impossible task but I"m sure someone else out there will find the anser to this useful.

Thanks
Windows 10
Audacity 2.4.2

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I"m currently taking voice recordings from various poeple

It’s very bad you have no control over the recording conditions.

Currently it’s near 20…

Noise Reduction much over about 12 produces audible damage.

there is an alternative way of removing he rest of the noise

Noise Gate. Gating tries to remove or suppress any sound that falls below a set volume.

I don’t know who is hiring who to do what in your case, but ACX Audiobooks gets around this by publishing specifications and Audacity has tools to test for noise before submission. Unless you can hit this minimum threshold, don’t post.

This may be an impossible task

Many, many forum postings are from people that can’t meet the noise numbers, and there’s no shortage of YouTube videos about how to build a home studio. Recording from home is not for the easily frightened.

Koz

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Thanks for the tip. I’m not experienced at this so my entire Audacity education is from youtube. There’s allot of stuff there so i posted this question to ask directions.

I’m trying to clean up some recordings (not mine) which will end up in a podcast. I had no control over the recording process.

I’m no professional in this field but am keen to learn.