Recently I’ve been using an Adobe beta program, Adobe Podcast, to remove room reverberation
from voice recordings I make at home. It does an amazing job of that, but recently I’m encountering problems
with the resulting “enhanced” (processed) recordings it produces, so bad this week that I can’t use the
result it produces. (There are no controls or settings in the beta program to tweak the results).
I use Audacity to edit audio, just downloaded the latest version (3.3.2). I can’t find any effect in Audacity that looks like it would get rid of room reverberation. Is there one, or a relatively simple process to do that with the effects Audacity provides?
Maybe an expert in voice recording might have something but its a very difficult process. Perhaps the old adage would be to fix the input so you don’t have to post process. You could do this by recording closer to the microphone at a lower level but you could also hang something over hard surfaces such as blankets or a duvet or fill empty space with partly crushed cardboard boxes. If you record at lower volume Audacity will make an excellent job of increasing the amplitude afterwards.
No native de-reverb effects in Audacity.
There are de-reverb plugins which work in Audacity, but they are not free, e.g. DeVerberate, VST & AU plug-in for reverb reduction (de-reverberation) (Try B 4 U buy)
[ De-reverb plugins which work in Audacity are not as good as the de-reverb done by Adobe enhance, which has more computing power ].
Thanks for your suggestion. I’m aware of how to minimize room reverberation when recording.
But that is not possible in the place where I currently record, and there aren’t any good alternative places I have right now.
I listened to the examples on the Acondigigital.com website and wasn’t much impressed. Given they want about $100 for the product, it’s a no go for me.
Echoes or reverb are your own voice arriving at the microphone more than once having bounced from the walls and ceiling. You are, in effect, asking the software to remove your voice from itself.
You might think that simple sound gates would help because echoes are always lower volume than the main voice. But no. That may work a little if you have one echo from one wall, once. But if you have more than one the gates will go nuts trying to suppress echoes without affecting the main voice.
Then there’s the serious problem of the performer not being able to have theatrical expression, volume change, or head movement.
So far, creating a quiet, echo-free environment is The Way.
We publish a plan for a Kitchen Table Sound Studio.
People have been able to create pleasant sound tracks by recording in their car. That does work.