What would be the best way to remove coughing from a flute recording?
I have already used the noise removal plug-in to remove some of the noise, but more needs to be done.
Notch filter, high pass / low pass or something else?
Please advise!
Could you post a short sample in WAV format (just a few seconds) of the original un-repaired recording. (See here for how to post an audio sample: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)
Sample as requested.
Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about that. There is a lot of room echo, ambient noise and indistinct stereo placement that add to the difficulty of isolating one sound from the other.
Here’s a before and after, which I guess is no better than you have already achieved:
If you have a LOT of patience and a good ear, you might be able to replace the note(s) with the same note from a different part of the performance. You’ll need to start/end your selction on a waveform zero-crossing, or you may need a short (millisecond) crossfade in order to get a smooth transition.
I’ve never actually had much luck with that kind of thing myself, but the pros do it. (The pros are using different software, probably with a temp-grid and some other helpful features.)
Had it been a good clean recording, that would have been a strong possibility, but I think in this case the quality is too poor with too many other sounds going on, plus the cough goes across multiple notes, so I doubt that will work. Audacity is actually pretty good for doing that sort of thing, but regardless of the software you are subject to the raw materials (the original recording), which in this case is not great.
Thank you everyone for your advice.