Noise removal without robotic voice

[tones]

Hi All,

I have a number of audio files which I recorded with Audacity, during the time I recorded I plugged the amplifier directly into the pc and this in itself caused a lot of static type noise to be recorded. At the time I figured I'll be able to remove it easily later one.

I've been attempting to remove the noise and have had some degree of success but the voice that is left sounds very robotic and I am unsure of how to fix this. Any tips or suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

[alatham]

Contrary to your assumption, there is no easy way to remove noise from an audio signal. Noise (the engineering definition) is very random and it's difficult for your computer to separate the randomness from the signal you want to hear. Noise Removal is an attempt to do that, but it's a very hard problem to solve.

The good news for you is that the Noise Removal in Audacity 1.3.4 Beta is greatly improved over the older algorithm that you're using. I suggest using that version of the program (they can be installed at the same time) to try to clean up your files. Use the default settings, and adjust the dB level to suite your tastes. It still isn't perfect, but those other-worldly artifacts don't show up nearly as often.

Before you make any other recordings, do your best to get rid of the noise. A clean recording is always superior to a software 'cleaning' solution.

[tones]

Thanks Alatham, much appreciated. I'll try the newer version of Audacity and give it a shot.