Hi I’m new to Audacity but I’m planning to use it for some basic sound analysis (to which I am also new). I was wondering if there is some way to separate similar signals from a single track? To put it in a bit of context; if I have 2 sources producing similar sounds but with variable frequencies and from slightly different distances from a microphone, is there anyway that Audacity would allow me to remove the sound with the lower amplitude and analyse the frequency of the other signal?
I guess what I really need is a way to analyse the frequency of the highest amplitude sound (throughout a track) without it being confounded by other sounds in the track. If anyone can think of any solutions, I’d be greatly appreciative.
No, not if the sounds are happening at the same time. That’s CSI forensics and it happens a lot better in television scripts than it does in real life.
This is the same problem as people trying to understand one conversation in a field of two or more, pulling one of the violins from an orchestra, cleaning up a performance in the face of similar background noises and it shows up again in “Reliable ways to kill your show.” as '“Don’t leave the TV on in the next room when you’re trying to speak into a microphone.”
There is no key for Audacity to use to split the performances. The desire to analyze the frequencies means you don’t know what the frequencies are ahead of time, so you can’t generate frequency filters, and having one slightly low doesn’t help any. Noise Gate only works if the sounds are sequential, not simultaneous and even then, it usually produces ratty performances in the face of real-world problems.
