Post Recording Echo

[Joseph Witchard]

What's a good way to get rid of a person's echo on Audacity? I recorded a podcast with two friends last night. Myself and one of my friends don't have too bad of an echo, but my other friend has it real bad.

[kozikowski]

<<<What's a good way to get rid of a person's echo on Audacity?>>>

You don't. Echo is one of the fatal errors. Are you using Skype or one of the other collaborative services to record the show? Everybody needs to be wearing headphones. Echo Cancellation never works very well and headphones are a really good way to make it not necessary.

We set up complex conferencing services all over the world and if you are a single person calling into the system from a laptop then iPod earbuds are for you. You can use the laptop built-in microphone if you want, but don't use the built-in speakers, and don't have the speakers running during the show capture.

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

Are headphones okay, or will my friends need a full headset like me? I have a headset, but I'm pretty sure both my friends are using mics that just hook up to the computer and sit on the desk.

[Irish]

Headphones are fine.
The important thing is that you don't have sound from the speakers getting back to the mic.

PO'L

[kozikowski]

That's correct. Full headsets are wonderful, but completely compulsive. We regularly do crystal clear sessions with a supervisor in San Clemente speaking into her Mac MacBook Pro and wearing big fuzzy comfortable headphones. The Director of Engineering does it with iPod earbuds as do I.

However,

A full-on headset divorces you from the room. If you're doing your presentation from a bathroom, a full headset is required to keep the reverberation down. Even a live bedroom or kitchen will be picked up on the laptop microphone. They don't care what they pick up. Any sound in the room, including echoes from the bathroom tiles, is fair game.


You might describe how you're producing the show. There's no shortage of postings about the step-by-step process for producing a multi-location podcast.

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

Okay. Well, we record late at night (midnight CST for me; one of my friends is in Eastern Time and one of my friends is in Pacific Time). I live out in the country, so it's basically no traffic at all on my end while we record, and even if it was, I live several hundred feet away from the highway. As far as I know, we all record in our bedrooms, each of us using Audacity and Skype. Like I said, I have a headset, but the other two (I'm pretty sure) are using mics that sit on their desk. I don't really know what type of neighborhood my friends live in, but I would guess it's pretty quiet as well for my friend in Eastern Time, since it's 1:00 AM for her when it's 12:00 AM for me. We usually have other programs running while we're recording, but just our internet browser as far as I know. When we get done with recording, they send me their recordings as a .wav file, I edit all the recordings (including any music) together and save them as a wav file, and then I open the wav file and save it as an MP3 file.

What plugins/effects should I acquire/get familiar with? The only plugins I have are LAME and the Notch filter, and I haven't really toyed around with the Notch filter. The only effects I really have any experience with is Fade In and Fade Out, which I use for the music.

[kozikowski]

I need to read it again, but I think you hit one very important point. The show capture doesn't happen at your house in real time. Everybody who posts here thinks you start capture on a complex fifteen minute show and walk out fifteen minutes later with one single sound file completely produced. Wash out the coffee cup and turn on CSI Miami.

You have a much more sane approach and it mirrors what the rest of the grownups do. Ever listen to Car Talk? Sounds smooth, doesn't it? No technical errors -- ever. They record up to two hours of work and calls to cut down in post production for that 54 minute show.

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

Wash out the coffee cup and turn on CSI Miami.

And when I get finished editing I will put on my sunglasses and look out into nothing

Mainly what I'm having trouble with is cleaning up the audio. I'm somewhat satisfied with editing music in and out, editing conversations, etc. But when I use tools such as Noise Removal, Click and Pop Removal, etc., one of two things happen: I can't tell that it's made any difference, or I've made the audio worse than before.

[kozikowski]

<<<I get finished editing I will put on my sunglasses and look out into nothing>>>

I leave the dirty cup in the sink and go to the beach. They allow fires at night on the beach around LAX.

<<<I can't tell that it's made any difference, or I've made the audio worse than before.>>>

Now that we beat you up about trying to get rid of echos (can't be done), what's left? What other damage are you trying to fix? Can you point to one of the podcasts to illustrate the problem?

Koz

[Joseph Witchard]

http://www.hogwarts-rpg.net/UH_Cast/UH_Cast_2.mp3

I've already put that episode together, so I'm not going to worry about cleaning up the audio until we do a new one. However, there is some stuff in there that I would like to know how to get rid of the next time. Things like crackling, pops, etc. For example, the guy that does the intro for us sent me the wav file, and I'm trying to edit it right now. When it's played on the podcast, you can notice there are some pops, but it's not real bad since it's playing during the opening music. However, just playing it alone for me to listen to, they're easily noticeable. I'm trying to get rid of stuff like that.