I have a voice recording which I’ve taken while learning how to build something.
It was done on my phone which was also in my shirts pocket, so main person talking is not very clear.
There is also the occasional scratchy sound from the phone being in my pocket.
I would like to amplify the main person’s voice and reduce all the other noises.
The speaker has a strong Scottish accent which makes listening to him a bit more tough, so I’m like it to be as loud & clear as possible.
I have downloaded Audacity, I converted the file from M4A to a WAV file.
I am just not sure how to use the program well enough to do what I need to do.
Please can someone assist me with this and guide me on how to do this.
Realistically, there’s not much you can do except record again in a better environment. (That’s what they do in Hollywood… On-location movie audio is re-recorded or re-created in a soundproof studio.)
You can try experimenting with the Graphic Equalizer to bring-out the voice frequencies and push-down the noise frequencies, but the vocal range includes most of the audio range, and most sounds do also, so there’s a lot of overlap. You can cut everything below about 100Hz and you can cut about about 10kHz with almost no effect on the voice, but otherwise you’ll just have to experiment to see if you can make an improvement.
I assume there’s no video with the phone in your pocket, but if there is video subtitles are often the best solution. And/or maybe type-up a transcript.
P.S.
One other small thing you can do - You can reduce any noise between sentences by selecting that audio and then enter a negative number into the Amplify effect. Generally, you don’t want total silence because that’s distracting too but reducing it can make it much less annoying. The Envelope Tool can also be used for that. And of course if there are long-unnatural gaps between sentences you can just take them out by selecting and hitting the Delete key.
That will strip off all the voice tones except the ones you need to make out the words. The down side is it will make your presentation sound like a telephone. If that doesn’t do it for you, then that’s the end of the world.
People still record in studios or build studios in their houses to record voices.
I like this picture because it has one of everything. Stand-Alone Sound Recorders, Voice Recorders, Hand-Held Microphones, Smart Phones, Boom Shotguns, Built-in Camcorder Mics, etc.
That’s what you do to get good clean voice. Nobody would go through all that if they didn’t have to.
Realistically, there’s not much you can do except record again in a better environment. (That’s what they do in Hollywood… On-location movie audio is re-recorded or re-created in a soundproof studio.)