Hello and thanks to anyone with ideas for helping me cleanup an old recording. My father passed away last year and I just discovered a recording of an interview he gave with a local radio station from 1978. It is in CD form but the quality is terrible it is almost impossible to hear some of the conversation. I have tried using the noise filter in Audacity but the it hasn’t really helped. Can anyone give me ideas of what, if anything, I can do to enhance the spoken voices and reduce the buzzing and hissing. My mother and I would really appreciate some help. I am a novice as you can tell.
You can try some equalization but if you have a bad recording, there’s often not much you can do. It’s usually best to choose the “Graphic Equalizer” option, and just experiment with the sliders to see if anything makes it better or worse.
Even with the latest professional software, pros still record in soundproof studios with really good equipment. I sure the original broadcast had acceptable quality, but the recording was probably done with a microphone in front of the radio.
You might try making a transcript so that you and your family can read-along. Or, you could make a DVD with subtitles (and maybe a still picture of father). (That requires DVD authoring software with subtitle capability.)
Can you attach a short sample?
What format has the audio on the CD, is it a normal one or are there mp3 or other files on it?
I am attempting to add a short clip. I hope it downloads okay. Not sure about the format of the CD though. Thanks for your help.
Oral history Clip 3 .wav short compressed.zip (521 Bytes)