noise reduction OK button inactive

[rockhammer]

Hello, I’ve been using audacity for years but a total newbie with respect to effects.

I have a voice recording where the main speaker seemed to have been sitting in a empty room. The amount of echo combined with his foreign accent makes it really hard to hear what he was saying.

I tried to follow instructions like this one https://www.alphr.com/remove-echo-audacity/ to reduce the echo by using noise reduction. However no matter what values I set the 3 sliders to, the “OK” button remains inactive.

I’m using v2.4.2 on macOS 10.14.6

Can someone please help? Thanks

[billw58]

You have to get a noise profile first. See this manual page.

That said, Noise Reduction can do very little to remove echo. It is meant to remove “steady state” noise such as hum and hiss.

– Bill

[rockhammer]

Thank you. I get it now. And you are probably right about the limits of echo reduction. thanks

[kozikowski]

Room echoes are the performer’s voice bouncing from the walls and arriving at the microphone slightly late. You are, in effect, asking Audacity to remove the voice from itself.

Echoes and reverb are deadly.

Koz