Need help with noise removal

Hi,

I’m using window 8 64 bit OS…

I need to edit a clip…here’s a sample of the noise, which I recorded when doing an international interview. First time I ever got these sounds on a file. Can anyone help?

http://www.audreyrusso.com/noise_sample.mp3

Thanks for any suggestions on how I can reduce this sound! :slight_smile:

When you make these recordings, do you listen to the recorder or the computer looped playback? I know it can be a little delayed from real time, but you’re going to cut the interview anyway and it would have warned you that the captured sound was damaged, maybe enough to hang up and start over.

I need to sit on that for a minute and I need to leave for a while. I’m trying to remember if I ever heard that before or not. That’s similar to the problems you get when you run a USB microphone through a USB hub. You should not do that ever. Also I think it’s happening at your end, not the other end because the tinks are sharp and clear and the voice has that natural muffled quality.

Describe exactly how you made the recording. We can’t see what you’re doing and we’re a complete slave to your descriptions. Skype? Telephone recorder? It sounds like a data error. The voice connection loses its mind every so often.

Noise Removal is not going to be an easy out. I tried it and no matter what happens, it’s going to be a slow slog.

It’s possible using the Audacity magnifier tools to drag-select each little “tink” and mute it with Control-L. That will give you a voice with tiny holes in it which sounds a lot more like a bad cellphone that everybody’s used to.


Have you tried to make another recording like calling your mum just to see if the problem is still there? Again we know zero about what you’re doing without a description.

Koz

Hi Koz,

Thanks for responding…it’s never happened before…I don’t know what the caller was using to call in, but he was calling in from the UK to the US. I was using a straight landline on my end…and when the call was finished, and the guest hung up…the sound ended…but of course, after the interview. That’s why I thought it was on their end.

So, there’s absolutely no way to even minimize the sound distortion?

Thanks again for your kind help!

So, there’s absolutely no way to even minimize the sound distortion?

I’m trying some solutions.

I was using a straight landline on my end.

Straight landlines don’t plug into computers. How did you capture the performance? That might give us a clue of what went wrong. I know of several landline recording systems that are terrible.

Koz

It was through blogtalk radio…and it never happened before or since…

You got a good one there. It’s never going to sound any better than a hack job, but see if either of these works.

Do have a deadline?

Koz

Thursday 6PM EST…thanks so much…I’ll try the sample patches :slight_smile:

How long was the interview?

Koz

The samples were great! How did you do that?

44 minutes LOL only half sounds bad…

Are you sitting down?

I couldn’t get any of the normal noise removal tools to work right, so I deleted them one at a time by hand.

Assume the first test clip is good enough, the one with the little ting remaining here and there.

Import the show onto Audacity.

Zoom into the first ting and pop sound. I only ever use three zoom tools: Zoom into selection, Control-E; Zoom out to the full show, Control-F; and Zoom out a little bit, Control-3. There are many other tools.

Zoom into the first Ting and Pop, drag select it and mute it with Control-L. (first illustration, after and before) Do a couple of experiments before you go tearing off down the whole show. You’ll get a feel for what they look like and how much surgery you can get away with.

When you get one deletion to work, Shift-ScrollWheel sideways to the next one. Repeat.

The second, cleaner test clip is an exotic application of Noise Removal to clean up after you delete the tings by hand. Noise Removal doesn’t like this problem because the noises are so sharp and short. It’s a process. Let me know.

If you have to export the show as MP3, do it at the highest quality you can. Editing MP3 and creating a new MP3 causes sound damage.

Koz
Screen Shot 2014-08-05 at 6.59.14 PM.png

One other thing. Do Not under any circumstances save the new, corrected show with the same filename as the old. That process is not foolproof and if anything bad happens you have no show. Full Stop.

You get to apply, as the video forum joke goes, the “Reshoot Filter.”

If you’re completely wedded to the specific filename, save the original work onto a thumbdrive or other safe location, or make a safety copy of the original work with a new name.

Koz

Also remember AUP is not a sound file…

Koz