reducing thumping sound?

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

(Using 10.6.8 and Audacity 2.0.6 on my old MacBook because it won’t run on Yosemite…) Hi. I’m a newbie, and have answered most of my questions about the effects by looking at a lot of videos. However, every so often in a track (I’m at a loss to explain any kind of pattern) a thump occurs that can’t be removed using sequence of noise/normalize/compression/equalize/normalize/hard limiter/normalize. Any ideas? It ruins the tracks!

2

Does this occur in tracks that you have recorded? If so, does it occur in tracks that you have recorded before you have done any editing or processing, or only after editing/processing?
Does this occur with imported files that play OK in other applications?
If you export the project, are the thumps present in the exported file?

3

Thanks so much for the prompt response! This is on voice-over tracks I’ve recorded. Not certain about answer to your questions, but I think “thump” is actually introduced when I apply effects: I’ll try to do it methodically and report back!

4

Hi, Steve! I just recorded a new track, and the thumping is there – barely audible – before I applied any effects. I notice that it also seems to only occur at the end of a track – not at other parts. Any ideas?

5

In case it’s relevant, do cuts on zero crossings and fade in to pastes: Audacity Manual.

Exactly what sound device are you using to record the voiceovers? If the device is recording with DC offset you should remove the offset before editing using Effect > Normalize… (and ideally, fix the hardware).

Gale

6

Please say what device you are recording with. If it is an external device it may require drivers and firmware for OS X.

Are you using multiple Audacity tracks one above the other? If there are tracks above or below the part of the track that has thumps, but those other tracks finish before the thumping track, you may need to drag-select from the current end of the other tracks to the end of the track that has the thumps, then generate silence. This is because tracks may crackle if some of the tracks have white space at the playback point.


Gale