Noise reduction and too high volume

[soevel]

Hello,

First of all it's my firs topic and I'm not using Audacity very long so a complete dummie. Please be gentil

I've set-up a wedding kiosk for my sister in law and there are several recordings that are not correct hearable at all, most of them oversteering and lot of background noise.
It are all video files, but I can separate audio from video myself so I added a audi file so you can hear what's going on.

What can I do to make it acceptable? It doesn't have to be like PRO sound but it would be great if it's understandable of course.

And what do I have to change at the hardware so when I use it a next time it wouldn't be the same?

Also added the complete file = Link1 (so video with audio)

Link1: mbf.me/3ucURH
Link2: mbf.me/UAimRs


Thanks a lot for your help!

[soevel]

Hi

Is there anyone who can give me tips or assist me? It's really important that it could improve this files asap. Thanks a lot

[steve]

The sound is very badly damaged and it is not possible to make much improvement.
I think this is a little better:

processed.flac

(1.46 MiB) Downloaded 22 times

I amplified the track to a slightly lower level ("Effect > Amplify" and set a negative amount of amplification), then used the "Telephone" preset in the Equalization effect.
See these links:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/amplify.html
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/equalization.html

(As this is an important recording, keep safe backup copies of the original)

[soevel]

Hi Steve

Thx a lot. It's not like it should sound of course but already better and original.
Which minus db did you used in amplify?

Could you tell me which settings I have to check so next time sound would be normal and not like this?

[cyrano]

I've had a short listen to your mp3. It's completely over level and ruined.

Now, it could be worsened by the mp3 compression or your video tool used to extract audio. So we really need a short piece of an original recording, with video and in the format delivered by the camera.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, it would also help to know the camera's make and type and settings. And the software: what are you using to edit? Sony Vegas?

I suppose all of this has been recorded with the cam's built-in microphone. It can't do THIS KIND of recording. It's probably auto-gained. In an environment such as a wedding, with very loud background music, the mic just can't cope. It's gaining down because of the music when it should go up for the voices. Even for a pro with good gear, this isn't an easy job.

I'll have a look at the video now to see if anything looks more salveagable there...

[soevel]

Hi,

the webcam is Logitech C920C and indeed, sound is done by mic of webcam.
Could you suggest a little integratable and affordable microphone that can do the job? Is possible something small I can add to the metal frame by drilling a round hole or something and mount it. I'm not a pro so price will be important.
App that is used is Rightbooth a, a simple videobooth app and it uses the standard settings of the webcam normally

Again my thanks to have a look at it

BR

[steve]

Which minus db did you used in amplify?

It's not critical. I just lowered the level "a bit" so that the waveform was not banging against the top/bottom of the track. Try about -3 dB.

Could you tell me which settings I have to check so next time sound would be normal and not like this?

I think that the problem is that you are asking too much of your little Logitech webcam.
The picture quality looks quite reasonable to me for a webcam, and the sound quality (bad as it is) is what I would expect from a webcam.

[soevel]

Ok, thanks a lot
Any suggestion for affordable mic and possible to built in next to the webcam in a metal plate would be great. Hope someone can advise me on this because I looked in the past already myself without succes.

[steve]

What you really need is a video camera which has manual audio gain control. That allows you to set the audio recording level to a low level and so avoid overloading (clipping) the audio. Cameras such as the "Zoom Q2HD" or the newer "Zoom Q4" or "Alesis VideoTrack" can do this. There may be other makes/models that have manual audio gain settings.

[soevel]

SW that I use does only support USB webcam, so can not use other camera but btw the camera is not so bad, sound is terrible because of plenty background noise.
So I would like to have separated microphone as first option

thx