Audacity Forum

Hi Everyone
I have lots of video clips that I made with a very cheap camcorder and the audio quality is totally useless, its all tinny and trebbely with hiss
I have since killed the camcorder with a large hammer but I am keeping the videos because they contain film of my late sister
I have tried importing a video into Audacity to try to improve the sound but it wont import.
PLEASE can anyone give me some help here as to what to do
Many Thanks.

bringe

I have tried importing a video into Audacity

If you don't have the camcorder any more, how are you playing the tapes?
Koz

Hi Koz
Sorry,I should have said
They were recorded onto an sd card. I had a 2gb card in there and have 28 clips saved that I want to improve.
Many Thanks.

bringe

Audacity can recognize many different video formats if you install the FFMpeg software add-on.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

If the camera saved the video in a special camera format, then you'll need something to convert. Audacity will not export into any video formats. How were you planning on getting the patched sound back into the movies?

Koz

Hi Koz
Many thanks for your reply.
I followed the link that you gave me but can you tell me which version of FFMpeg I should download,there are so many, and lame or not lame (whatever that means)
The camera recorded the clips as AVI files but I have "any video converter" so I can convert the AVI files to anything if need be.
Excuse my ignorance but I dont understand what you said about how to get the patched sound back into the movies
Ime thinking that, if I can import the audio from a movie clip into Audacity and enhance it, I would have to delete the original audio and attatch the enhanced one, Is that how it works??? Perhaps windows movie maker would do that???
Looking forward to your reply.

bringe.

Instructions for installing FFMpeg for Audacity on Windows are here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... Ins#ffdown

bringe wrote: I would have to delete the original audio and attatch the enhanced one, Is that how it works?

That's basically it. You need to use some sort of video editing program to remove the old audio track and import the new audio track, then save the whole thing as a new video file. I'm not sure if Windows Movie Maker can do this - it may.

Hi Steve
Many thanks for your reply and the link. But as I said before there are so many downloads on that page I want to get the right one
Can I be a real pain and ask you to cut and paste the one I need?? and what does lame and not lame mean
Looking forward to your reply.

bringe.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ: ... Ins#ffdown

Windows

Go to the download page
Left-click this link, do not right-click.
In "For Audacity on Windows", left-click the link FFmpeg_v0.6.2_for_Audacity_on_Windows.exe and save the file anywhere on your computer.
Double-click "FFmpeg_v0.6.2_for_Audacity_on_Windows.exe" to launch the installer (you can safely ignore any warnings that the "publisher could not be verified").
Read the License and click Next, Next and Install to install the required files to "C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacity" (or "C:Program Files (x86)FFmpeg for Audacity" on a 64-bit version of Windows).
Restart Audacity if it was running when you installed FFmpeg.
If you have problems with Audacity detecting FFmpeg, follow the steps to manually locate FFmpeg.

Hi Steve
Many thanks for pointing me in the right direction for the FFmpeg download. I have succesfully done that and imported the audio from my first video clip.
I have tried various effects like normalise,compressor,bass boost,equalisation,but I fear I am getting nowhere
I have attatched the audio to this post so I hoped you could have a go at it when you have the time
I know its a bad recording,even with the wind blowing on it,Ime not worried about that,I would just like it to be less trebbely and a bit easier on the earholes!!
Looking forward to your reply.

bringe.

Hiya People
I see that my recently attatched audio file has been downloaded twice.
Can anyone suggest a way how I can clean it up and improve it
Many Thanks.

bringe