Audacity Forum

I am recording sermons onto my laptop and am having issues with trying to remove some noise or humming in the background. I have tried the noise removal and the mains hum removal effects neither one helps with the sound. The noise removal works some but not to my satisfaction.
Can someone take a look and see what you think
http://www.pgbaptistchurch.org/soundbyte.mp3

I have started using a different laptop to record onto and am now getting this noise. I did not have it with the older one.

Thanks
ck1999

http://www.kozco.com/audacity/soundbyte2.mp3

First stop using Audacity 1.2 the Noise Removal tools in 1.3 are enormously better. You can have 1.2 and 1.3 on your machine at the same time as long as you never launch both at once.

You gotta figure out what's causing that. I can't get rid of it and I do OK with these tools. I don't think it's mains problems because the analysis doesn't line up on power line frequencies (which is why power line hum removal tools didn't work.)

Has this computer ever worked? You can try cleaning the connections with alcohol and paper towels. Dry everything thoroughly with fresh towels. Don't go nuts. Just clean what you can reach. I've had those little 1/8" audio connectors create problems when they got dirty. Unplug and replug everything a couple of times.

How are you connected to the computer? Describe how your voice gets into the machine. You sound pretty good. Are you wearing a microphone?

It sounds like your computer may be damaged. It's unstable and it's generating its own sounds in addition to yours. Put Audacity in diagnostic mode. Click once inside the red record meters and they will wake up and meter the sound without going into record. I bet yours bounce in the -30 range. That's terrible noise. They should bounce in the-50 range for a live recording.

Koz

Heck, that's a lot of noise.
Do you get the same thing recording in all locations, or just at the church?
Do you get the noise if you run the laptop from batteries instead of from the mains power adaptor?

Thanks for the replies.
To answer your questions and for more insight.
I am using Audacity 1.3.3-Beta. I have played with the noise removal levels and still do not get what I am trying to.

I was recording the sermon from the Record out phono plug to a 1/8 microphone jack on the laptop. These worked fine.
Then we got a different computer (it is not brand new) and the microphone boost option created a lot of distortion and noise. So I went from the headphone jack on the mixer to the 1/8 microphone jack on the newer laptop, this allowed me to increase the volume of the recording. Both laptops are running Windows XP.

I am thinking I may need to get a usb sound card or another soundcard because of all the noise generated with this computer. But I am wondering if Audacity can fix the recordings.

ck1999

Stevethefiddle,

I have tried it at home as well recording from a cd player to see what it does and get the same type of noise.

I have not tried battery vs power plug. Have been using only powerplug. I will try the battery alone and see if this changes anything.

Thanks again

ck1999

The level of noise is really too much for the Noise Removal effect. You should be able to get some degree of improvement, but you will either still have a lot of that noise remaining, or the actual sound that you are recording will be badly effected.

I'll wait to hear from you re/ the battery test (plug in power supply completely disconnected from the computer).

<<<But I am wondering if Audacity can fix the recordings.>>>

That little sound clip was the best I could do in 1.3. It's only corrected in the middle to establish the contrast. If that's not acceptable, then you have no show with that computer.

Koz

I brought the laptop home and plugged it into the headphone out of my cd player these are the readings

With cord plugged into the microphone jack on the laptpp the red meter was reading between about -52 to -49.
If i unplug the cord and record then the value is between -60 and -54. This was with nothing playing in the cd player.

I did not get the buzzing I hear in my recording normally but am getting alot of noise/static still

any Ideas.

ck1999

Also,
I could tell no difference if the the power cord was plugged in or not.

ck1999

<<<I could tell no difference if the the power cord was plugged in or not. >>>

One of the failures is the power system interfering with the show. This usually changes a lot if you suddenly change to batteries from being plugged into the wall. So this isn't your problem.

<<<but am getting alot of noise/static still>>>

Borrow somebody's laptop long enough to see if it works. I'm betting you have bad sound electronics inside the laptop. This wouldn't be the first time.

Koz