can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

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Egils200
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 11:41 am
Operating System: Windows 7

can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Egils200 » Wed Jul 13, 2016 12:00 pm

Hi there, I'm a newbie in audio editing, but have a serious task. I made a musical instrument - a tank drum - recorded it with a Shure sm57 microphone directly on my pc with audacity using an usb interface plug. And the sound is qute poor, the main problem are the annoying buzzing frequencies on lower notes (utleast I think this is about the frequences). I would like to somehow remove them from the track. For me it even seems that I can't enable the spectral selection on my Audacity 2.0.4
Can someone help me to edit this track and get a nice sound? Or maybe there is some recording option to get a better result? The sound sample can be found with this link: https://files.fm/u/d4mem77r

Thank you

steve
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Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by steve » Wed Jul 13, 2016 12:20 pm

To enable spectral editing in Audacity 2.1.2, please see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spec ... ction.html

However, I don't think that spectral editing will help in this case.
Does your setup record other sounds OK?
The "buzzy" type sound does not appear to be only a low frequency problem. Even if I remove frequencies below 240 Hz I can still hear the "problem" that you describe.
I'd suggest that you experiment with different microphone placement, in particular, try moving the microphone further away from the drum and see if that improves it.
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Egils200
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 11:41 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Egils200 » Wed Jul 13, 2016 1:20 pm

thank's for your fast answer steve!

But I have a feeling that I don't have these spectral selection options on my program, could it be? When I go to edit-preferences-spectograms there is no box to click for Enable Spectral Selection and other options abowe that I see in the manual. (see screenshot)

And in my case looks that the noise removal option that I use also makes the buzzing stronger. And placing the microphone further also makes the sound more and more unclear and I need to ue the amplify option and using it more also makes the buzzing stronger. :(
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Gale Andrews
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Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Gale Andrews » Wed Jul 13, 2016 1:39 pm

Egils200 wrote:I have a feeling that I don't have these spectral selection options on my program, could it be?
Audacity 2.0.4 is old and does not have Spectral Selection.

Here is the link to download 2.1.2 http://www.audacityteam.org/download.

2.1.2 has Noise Reduction, not Noise Removal.

Gale
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Egils200
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 11:41 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Egils200 » Wed Jul 13, 2016 6:32 pm

Ok, I just got the newest vrsion, will try to figure somthing out. :)
Anyway I think that thre is something with the mic, I think it was not good to plug it directly in the usb .... :(

Egils200
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 11:41 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Egils200 » Thu Jul 14, 2016 4:26 pm

Hi there, I'm still strugling to get the record good. I even got an audio mixer for my mic. I noticed that on ear plugs the sound is much better than just from my laptop. I can reduce the buzzing coming from laptop speakers by heavily reducing the sound level, making the sound real silent. For me it seems that the laptop speakers can't handle the ritch sound. Can still someone suggest me how to transform the sound so it sounds good also on laptop?
The sound sample is hre: https://failiem.lv/u/p42bz29k
Thank you very much

steve
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Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by steve » Thu Jul 14, 2016 4:56 pm

Egils200 wrote:The sound sample is hre: https://failiem.lv/u/p42bz29k
The new recording sounds good to me on good speakers.
It sounds rubbish on my laptop's built-in speakers, but everything sounds rubbish on my laptop's built-in speakers because the built-in speakers are rubbish.
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Egils200
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 11:41 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by Egils200 » Thu Jul 14, 2016 5:15 pm

Isn't it really way to get it sound good on both? :(
I would like to publish this sound and people will probably first listen to this just throo their laptops.

steve
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Re: can't get rid from unvanted frequencies

Post by steve » Thu Jul 14, 2016 10:19 pm

The problem is that the sound is very strongly concentrated around about 300 to 500 Hz, which is close to the bottom end of the frequency range of many laptop speakers. So the speakers are really struggling to produce those tones, resulting in bad sound quality, but if you remove those frequencies, there's almost no sound left. In addition there are bass frequencies that are too low for laptop speakers to reproduce, but will cause parts of the laptop case to vibrate and possibly rattle.

I think the best that you can do is to put a notice on your website informing them that the recording will probably sound bad on small speakers, and recommend they listen either with good / large speakers or good quality headphones.
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