reducing noise - newbie

[Cakes]

Hey all, forgive me I'm a newbie. I'm trying to reduce the noise on a recording, I watched the youtube videos and it seems that I'm supposed to click on Effect > Noise reduction > get noise profile > select the part of the file that will be filtered out AND the problem is the minute that I click on "get noise profile" it automatically starts "applying noise reduction" to the entire file but the problem is that I haven't even been able to select the part of the file to filter out and I can't figure out how to do it. I'm assuming that I'm doing something wrong but I don't know enough about it to explain it well or check if I'm doing it right.

Please help and thank you in advance.

[kozikowski]

Noise Reduction is in two steps. Drag-select some pure noise—noise that's not mixed with anything you want to keep. This can be the hard part if you're trying to rescue a performance or voice buried in trash.

Effect > Noise Reduction > Profile.

Then select the whole show with the button on the left and Effect > Noise Reduction > Select reduction values > OK.

Start with the default values.

Listen and see what happened. If you bump the first number, Reduction up too far, the show will start sounding like talking into a milk jug.

Noise Reduction used to be called Noise Removal. It was changed because too many people were expecting it to remove noise to total silence. Most software tools won't do that.

There is another tool called Noise Gate. That one looks for loudness in the show and tries to switch quiet parts even quieter.

https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyqu ... Noise_Gate

Koz

[Erwa88]

This effect always degrades the sound quality a bit when I use it ... /:
How can I make it really clean please?

[kozikowski]

effect always degrades the sound quality a bit when I use it

Noise Reduction always degrades sound quality, but you can really start to hear it if the reduction goes above about 12. The audiobook people can use 6 easy, and sometimes as high as 9 for voice, but if they go higher, the company may reject the work for distortion. You have to actually record in a quiet, echo-free room. You can't fix it in post effects or filters.

As a side issue, nobody can do a good job taking out echoes.

Noise Reduction won't fix all noises, either. The noise has to be there constantly such as microphone hiss, computer fans, or air conditioner sounds. It won't fix dogs barking, other voices, changing speed engine noises, or planes going over.

Koz

[Cakes]

Noise Reduction is in two steps. Drag-select some pure noise—noise that's not mixed with anything you want to keep. This can be the hard part if you're trying to rescue a performance or voice buried in trash.

Effect > Noise Reduction > Profile.

Then select the whole show with the button on the left and Effect > Noise Reduction > Select reduction values > OK.

Koz

Thanks for your response Koz but my problem is that when I drag select, it automatically plays and then I also can't go into the "noise reduction" tab while it's playing. Also if I just go into the "noise reduction" and then the minute I click on "get noise profile" then it starts applying the "noise reduction" even before I've created the "noise profile" so it doesn't really do anything. I've watched the youtube videos about this and my software doesn't seem to be doing the same thing that everyone else's does.

Thanks

[steve]

my problem is that when I drag select, it automatically plays

You are clicking too high. Click and drag on the actual waveform, not on the "timeline" ruler.