Windows 10/Audacity V. 3.1.3 / Lenovo laptop.
I know how to reduce noise after a recording but can I use this filter during recording? Basically, I want to take the audio from my scanner radio (the signal has a lot of background noise) feed it into my laptop and listen to it on the speakers using Audacity to filter the noise on the way. Is this possible?
Because of Lenovos strange input socket arrangement the input to the laptop would be via USB.
No, Audacity doesn’t apply effects in real-time during recoding, it only works on files.
Noise reduction would be a little tricky (not impossible) in real-time because you have to feed it a noise sample first.
And usually if the noise is “bad” it doesn’t work very well… It usually works best if you have a slight-constant background noise… When you don’t really need it but where it can make an improvement…
Most DAWs can apply effects in real-time or there are some “VST hosts” that would allow you to use a 3rd-party VST plug-in. …Audacity is an audio editor, not a DAW (digital audio workstation) application.
If you find something that does real-time processing you can also try a noise gate (similar to “squelch” on a radio). A noise gate kills the sound (or lowers it) when the audio level falls below a preset threshold.
Many thanks for that information. I’ll try a noise gate.