Distant voice louder

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I have to admit I am a total noob. I did try a search but didn’t find anything like what I’m looking for, unless it was completely over my head :smiley:

I have an audio recording of two people in a conversation from one of my classes. One was fairly close but the other was far away, my recorder didn’t pick up the distant voice well, therefore it’s kinda mumbled. I can’t seem to figure out how to get the further away voice close to the same level as as the other, and(if possible) do away with the background noise. Any help would be really appreciated. I’m sorry if it has been covered before. Thanks for the help in advance :slight_smile:

2

I’m not surprised it didn’t show up on a search. It’s more complicated than everyone thinks.

Audacity can’t split apart the instruments in an orchestra in order to make one instrument louder than the others. We can’t split apart the members of a chorus to make some members louder. See where I’m going with this? We can’t split your three “instruments,” noise and two speakers, in order to choose one to make louder or softer. So there are no tools to find.

That’s not to say we’re helpless, but repairs may be advanced. You can make the louder voice softer with Effect > Compression.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/compressor.html

If the background noise is constant like air conditioning or a computer fan, you can try Effect > Noise Removal.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/noise_removal.html

If you just want to hear the words and aren’t after theater quality, you could try Effect > Equalization > Select Curve > Telephone > OK.

That’s probably the easiest and it should make the words clearer.

Koz

3

Probably the most valuable part of this exercise is now you know you need to get the recorder close to the person speaking. No fair trying to record a lecture from the back of the hall, either, unless you brought the weapons-grade microphones.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/sennheiserShotgun.jpg

Koz

4

unless you brought the weapons-grade microphones

Maybe next time :slight_smile:
On my way home, will take a crack at it then, any other advice, again, thanks in advance.

5

Try the equalization trick. That’s pretty simple and we’ve had some luck with it.

If we could shoot sound from across the room, then the newsies wouldn’t still be doing this:

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/microphoneNewsCluster.jpg

Koz