removing crackling static

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

new here. I’ve learned the basics.
I’ve gone through Noise reduction, amplify on the right channel and tried de-clicking and went down a rabbit hole to no avail with spectral edit tool and filter curve.
I’m trying to get rid of this grinding crackling noise on top of the audio.
Would anyone please have a look for me and advise?

here is an image of the audio at the worst portion.
Screenshot 2023-02-09 221653.png
And here is that same portion trimmed a bit to the worst parts.
It is almost all concentrated to the left audio channel.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y0XBM_oznEfjmKVHZ7th8uwEIGf0lnzZ/view?usp=share_link

anyone have a sequence I can follow just short of redrawing every section that has the harsh static?

thanks in advance

using windows 10 20H2 and Audacity 3.0.2

2

The music only goes up to 5kHz, so a low pass at 5kHz will only remove noise,
but it will still sound like a Geiger-counter.

5kHz bandwidth is not enough for music: it will sound like you’re on-hold on the phone.

IMO you should recapture, rather than attempt repair.

3

Thanks for the reply.
I appreciate the feedback. Recapturing the audio from the tape will end in the same results. The crunchy static is on the tape itself.
I am going to try some stuff this morning and see where I land.

4

The crunchy stuff looks & sounds like digital corruption, rather than analogue tape noise.

looks digital noise, rather tha analogue tape.png
looks digital noise, rather tha analogue tape.png860×504 17.6 KB

5

I’ll give the tape a listen again at those two songs and see if the garbage is there or was it in the transfer.
Thanks yall

6

okay so update.
It must be the cord i was using to transfer. This time I put the tape player on a towel and didn’t touch the unit or my laptop for the 1:30:00 transfer.
You guys were right, it was digital ‘noise’.