I have a loud fan and every time I try to remove the backround noise it makes the noise still there and ym voice to low. If I to increase it the backround noise comes back. How do I remove the backround noise w/o removing my vocals. Amplify didn’t work.
If the fan noise is really bad, you don’t remove it. Really bad noise interferes with voice quality and you pretty much can’t separate them. You can sometimes take the recording down to CIA and FBI style honky recordings, but you can’t go back to a presentation voice podcast.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/noise_removal.html
Many people find that recording with a good quality USB microphone fails because you can’t get very far away from a noisy computer. One 6 foot USB cable is it.
Analog XLR microphones can get long distances from the computer with excellent quality, but they take special electronics, preamps, digital converters, etc. All the things you were hoping to avoid with your USB microphone.
Koz
The first step in Noise Removal, the Profile step is super important. If you have to, sit in front of the microphone for several seconds and make a recording with you not moving and holding your breath. The object is to capture Just The Noise and nothing else. You have to be there because the noise will change if you’re not. Noise Removal will try to remove the noise in your Profile from the show.
Koz
I saw in a video guy had a huge real life fan next to him and he was able to remove the backround noise. When I did the steps it didn’t work.
“It worked on YouTube, how come I can’t get it to work?”
We’re familiar with that problem. How many different examples of background noise did he have? Getting rid of fan rumble and wind noise is very different from computer fan whine, and I’m assuming that’s what you have. Computer fans don’t generally blow your hair back and put out the candle.
The only way out is careful application of noise removal. Noise Removal will stop removing noise during voices in order to keep from turning you into a science fiction character. You can control this effect with “Frequency Smoothing.” In severe applications, your choices are hissy/buzzy voice and Martian.
A common error is cranking the first value, Noise Reduction, up as far as it will go. Big mistake. Start with gentle values like 6 and then maybe UNDO and then 12. If you make it to 24, you should be considering a reshoot. Bare wall computer rooms are hell on earth for professional sound shooters. The rooms take special, expensive microphones and sometimes soundproofing to get a good sound track. You can go a very long way by recording in a different room from the computer.
Koz
I did see one guy standing in front of a room fan and demonstrating different wind socks he had made for his recorder. That’s perfectly valid. Thumping wind noise can yield to a good Dead Cat®.
Koz
