I record gameplay videos for upload to YouTube - that is, what’s on my screen gets recorded, while I am also talking into my microphone. The problem I am having is that with my new microphone I get a ‘hiss’ of white noise that I find distracting and that I don’t wish to be in my uploads to YouTube. I am trying to use Audacity to remove this hiss.
I’ve watched tutorials on YouTube so I know how to actually remove the white noise from an audio file with the Noise Removal feature.
My problem is that I don’t know how to open my video files (recorded using Bandicam, .avi format) in Audacity. I get the error message that says (paraphrased) “This is a video file. Audacity cannot currently open this type of file. You need to extract the audio to a supported format.”
It is possible to record using Bandicam and create a separate audio file (.wav) which I have done, but I don’t know how to then replace the existing audio in the video with my new, edited audio.
Audacity does not edit video. You can install FFmpeg then let Audacity extract the audio from the video to its internal lossless audio format. Or you can create a separate WAV file in Bandicam as you have done and import that WAV into Audacity.
Then replace the audio in the video using a video editor such as listed at http://audacityteam.org/about/links#av. AVIdemux should replace the audio fine without having to re-encode the video. Re-encoding the video always loses quality because it is not practicable to use lossless video formats. Lossless video is of colossal size and apart from the storage issue, computers will find it hard to play such video smoothly.
Some video editors will let you apply filters to the audio track directly but there is no noise removal in AVIdemux.
…but I don’t know how to then replace the existing audio in the video with my new, edited audio.
That’s normally done with a video editor. I use Corel Video Studio (currently $64 USD). Microsoft Movie Maker (FREE) might be able to do it, or maybe [u]Avidemux[/u] (FREE).
Video editors usually have some audio editing capability too. I think Video Studio has audio noise reduction. If that works it will save lots of steps! But I haven’t tried it… Whenever I’m doing any “serious” audio editing (other than adjusting the volume, etc.) I do exactly what you are doing and use a proper audio editor.
I get a ‘hiss’ of white noise that I find distracting and that I don’t wish to be in my uploads to YouTube. I am trying to use Audacity to remove this hiss.
Before you go too far, how is the hiss removal working for you? If the noise is bad, sometimes “the cure is worse than the disease”. There’s no point in going to all this trouble if you can’t actually improve the audio…
My problem is that I don’t know how to open my video files (recorded using Bandicam, .avi format) in Audacity.
If you have not done so already, install the optional [u]FFmpeg Import/Export Library[/u]. That will allow you to open most audio/video formats and “extract” the audio. You’ll still need a video editor to replace the old audio with the new in the audio/video file.
For temporary formats, it’s best to work with WAV files in order to avoid multiple lossy-to-lossy conversions. Export to WAV and open the new-and-improved WAV file in your video editor. Your video editor will will convert it to whatever A/V format you are using when you render.