Updated version! https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/updated-de-clicker-and-new-de-esser-for-speech/34283/1
radio but the signal is usually fairly bad.
AM or FM? Their problems are different.
Koz
Hmm, it doesn’t say. I’ll have to ask Joseph what he had in mind. I actually recorded the first of those tonight in my breathy, female voice (or something akin to one I hope!) as he really wants it to sound like the radio announcer in The Fog. 
Cheers.
When in doubt, take AM radio, it is the type that every one can build a receiver for in MacGyver style; the novel gives me the impression that all takes place in a after-big-disaster world. Thus equipment is difficult to obtain.
I think you’re absolutely right, Robert and yes, it does.
Cheers.
Yup, my author confirmed that he was thinking of AM
“Kind of tinny and buzzy, maybe?”.
Cheers.
Yeah. Low pass filter at 5KHz or slightly lower. AM radio has a restricted fidelity because of the number of stations you can smash onto the dial. Then the buzz and fading.
I’m going to grit my teeth here because if you have a catastrophic event, there will be no lights or power in the neighborhood and hence, no buzz. That’s usually the effect that sells it. Everybody knows what fluorescent lights sound like on a radio.
You will have harsh static, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming to be convincing.
Let me see what I can come up with.
You only get the fading if the show takes place at night or over a long distance. That’s connected to the script.
Koz
Here you go. I had to pervert Steve’s Noise gate and even then there’s too much hiss. AM doesn’t hiss. That’s an FM problem. I got the intercarrier whistle OK, but the static could be sharper.
See, that’s script again. Are they listening to a little transistor radio?
The pre-baked equalizer is misleading. AM has no natural low end droop. That’s only if you’re listening on a crappy radio.
Koz
Also AM radio tends to have pretty high distortion levels. Not sure if there is an audacity plugin to introduce harmonic distortion or not.
Yes, there is. The hard clipper, but it’s a custom effect that I can’t find quickly.
I think I got the noise better, but I can’t get rid of the Noise Gate natural reaction to try to “help me” by smoothing out the clicks. I WANT them harsh and irritating but the attack/decay slider will not go to zero.
Koz
Wow, that sounds good.
All right, this is what the script says:
“He and Harold had crossed nearly two states on foot, trying to get Home. They had been travelling steadily north since the night, over a year ago, they found a working radio and heard the broadcasts coming from the city of the living. They had listened to those broadcasts whenever they could pick up the signal—usually on overcast days— until their batteries ran dry. The signal was always weak, popping and crackling like Rice Crispies cereal, but it became a beacon, a bright ray of hope, calling them Home from the world of the dead. The first time they heard the radio station, they had both wept. It was a Barry Manilow song, “Looks Like We Made It”, faint and distorted. When Brent first heard the music issuing from the radio’s speakers his breath had caught in his throat and blood rushed to his head so fast he thought he was going to pass out. After the music played, a man and woman began to speak. They called themselves the Last Living Deejays. It was a husband and wife duo named Rick and Ronni Parker, and they were transmitting from Peoria, Illinois, a city they now called Home, where the survivors of the zombie apocalypse still lived something like a normal life. “If you are out there listening to this broadcast right now, know that you are not alone. And know that you have a home here with us, a place where you can live in peace and security among your fellow living human beings,” Ronnie had said. She had a purring, angelic voice. “Come, if you can. There is a place waiting here for you. There are fifty thousand living men and women here. There are children, and there are dogs. You can have a life again. You can be free. Run, you brave souls. Run Home!” They gave reports on the activities of nearby meat patrols, warned of herd movements, reported the local news, the births, deaths, and weddings of the citizens of their fortress city. They opined on the politics of their burgeoning civilization. Home was a democratic parliament, they said, much like England’s government before the Phage, though they called their legislature the Board of Trustees and “mayor” was the title of their head of state, rather than “president” or “prime minister”. The day they restored electricity to the entire city they held a wild celebration and played rock and roll music all day long. They observed all the old holidays like Easter and Christmas. They reported on their dealings with the nearby zombie tribes. They put on old–‐ fashioned radio dramas. They had a highly trained militia. They had high walls, and they had nukes.” Copyright Joseph Duncan 2014.
OK. good timing. I was going to ask you for that.
This is my latest pass. I think I got most of the “normal” distortions down for a standard, “fringe area” broadcast. In the absence of “civilization” you can get AM radio broadcasts across the US, and can hear thunderstorms three states way. Trust me on this…
Koz
So that almost has to be a transistor radio, right?
Koz
Again, we’ll ignore the reality of no civilization and therefore no popping. Remember, they used to send radio signals across the Atlantic using not very powerful equipment. They had the advantage of being the only ones doing it. With no storms, there’s nothing to stop you.
Koz
Thanks, mate.
I think I prefer the third one but it is a close call.
The only hesitation I would have is that the high pitched whine could perhaps be a bit jarring to someone listening in bed or what not.
Cheers.
I just started processing the work I recorded last night.
I’m not sure how much more I’ll do tonight as I’m itching to watch X-Men First Class (for the first time since the cinema) before I watch the new one hopefully tomorrow or Sunday.
I have done the Foreword so far.
As usual the files are here:
The good (amazing, brilliant, stupendous!) news is that I think Paul has cracked it with the de-clicker! 
The perhaps not so good news is am I now hearing a bit too much ambient noise again?
Steps:
Record in mono. Sample rate 44100 Hz.
Normalize to 0.
Equalization: “LF rolloff for speech”
Click remover with defaults
Noise reduction:
12
0.00
200
0.15
Look for any parts that are noticeably louder or quieter than the rest, and manually adjust using the Amplify effect or Envelope Tool.
Normalize to 0.
Limiter(2)
-3
10
Amplify to -3 dB
Cheers.
Just when you thought I couldn’t bring you anything else to work on.
Advice please?
You don’t have to put the intercarrier whine in there. That’s only if you have two stations too close together — say at night when they travel further. According to the script, there’s only one station.
It occurs to me that y’all may never have experienced the AM-DX thing when you listen intently to a radio under the covers in your bedroom in the dead of night to hear stations far away.
Far away from Britain is whales and ocean and stuff.
Koz
chuckles
No, I can’t say that I have experienced much of that.
Even when I came up with my version of white noise to sleep to (radio not tuned) when I was young it was usually FM as AM was too cluttered. sigh Of course, I should have invented the bloody sound machines (such as my SoundSpa) they have today for it but that’s a whole other story.
So, are you going to tell me how I work this magic and leave out the whine please?
Oh and the error message too please.
Cheers.
Not using compressor any more? Is this limiter not the Hard Limiter supplied with Audacity? I use those two. Should I do something better?