Removing a specific signature from audio

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

This is a question on how to remove a specific audio signature from recorded audio.

What I have is a speaker that likes to hit his wedding ring on the podium so there is a very audible clack sound. It is about 15 ms long. What I would like to do is to copy one of the “clacks” and then have an effect search the entire recording and pull that out even if it is in the midst of speaking. I’ve tried click removal and while I can get it to take out the noise somewhat in an isolated circumstance I’m concerned, based on the help file suggestions, that it will damage the audio if I do it for the entire recording. I downloaded the “Popmute” effect and it doesn’t work well at all with it. Does anyone have suggestions as to the best way to do it? Presently I just manually take out the ones I can and sometimes have to leave them in when embeded in the audio though sometimes I can just take out a small section without affecting the audio too much.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Cliff

2

The sound is likely to have a broad frequency spectrum, which will prove to be difficult to remove without damaging the remaining audio. My best advice would be to put a thick cloth over the podium so that it does not “clack” so loudly.

3

Thanks Steve. I had thought of doing that, but hadn’t figured out how yet. Prevention is probably the best solution.

Cliff

4

Always :wink: