Audacity Forum

Gale Andrews wrote: I was asking if the issue Steve raised prior to 2.1.0 was the artifacts in the processed sound, or if it was also that (whatever the length of the profile) the exact profile taken now affected the result more than in 2.0.6.

I've not tested to see if the new effect is more sensitive to a poorly selected profile than the old effect, though that could be an interesting test.

What I have noticed is that although the new effect gives less tinkle speckles in the spectrum (a good thing) they tend to be brighter and more distinct than in the old effect, which I find (subjectively) makes them stand out more than in the old effect.

steve wrote:

Gale Andrews wrote: I was asking if the issue Steve raised prior to 2.1.0 was the artifacts in the processed sound, or if it was also that (whatever the length of the profile) the exact profile taken now affected the result more than in 2.0.6.

I've not tested to see if the new effect is more sensitive to a poorly selected profile than the old effect, though that could be an interesting test.

What I have noticed is that although the new effect gives less tinkle speckles in the spectrum (a good thing) they tend to be brighter and more distinct than in the old effect, which I find (subjectively) makes them stand out more than in the old effect.

Do you have examples?

Artifacts in the pauses and artifacts in the foreground sound have different causes. I think you are referring to artifacts the the sounds, as in Darren's examples. The original complaint here was that those bumping noises, which are not background noise, came out "metallic" when there was no frequency smoothing. The lesson of this overlong discussion is simply to use some smoothing, then.

Paul L wrote:Do you have examples?

I wrote: "they tend to be brighter and more distinct than in the old effect". I am talking about a general tendency rather than a specific example. Does your analysis differ?

steve wrote:

Paul L wrote:Do you have examples?

I wrote: "they tend to be brighter and more distinct than in the old effect". I am talking about a general tendency rather than a specific example. Does your analysis differ?

I wasn't clear.

There are musical noise artifacts that get leftover in regions that are purely background noise. The old effect typically has many of these, if sensitivity is zero and frequency smoothing is zero. Increased smoothing blurs them rather than really avoiding them.

There are whistly and metallic artifacts such as Darren complained of, but I think these are NOT in pure background noise. Instead they happen in the stray bumping and scraping noises in that example, which he admits he made only for demonstration. Still, they are something like quiet breaths that might stand out less from the background than the speech. These are not the same thing as musical noise.

Are those the sorts of artifacts you mean, and if so, are you talking about the new effect with zero smoothing or with greater?

Another possible difficulty:

There doesn't seem to be a input control.
Enter "-10" as noise reduction factor

--> 36 dB boost in my specific sample audio (!)

Robert J. H. wrote:Another possible difficulty:

There doesn't seem to be a input control.
Enter "-10" as noise reduction factor

Wow - I just "accidentally" typed in "-12" as the Noise Reduction amount and ended up with +335.4 dB of gain

steve wrote:

Robert J. H. wrote:Another possible difficulty:

There doesn't seem to be a input control.
Enter "-10" as noise reduction factor

Wow - I just "accidentally" typed in "-12" as the Noise Reduction amount and ended up with +335.4 dB of gain

If we take 0 dB as one meter, this would be equal to 6.22408 Light Years.
That's about the distance to reach the second nearest star
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard%27s_Star

It is good that the playback volume has a limit, otherwise....

Robert J. H. wrote:It is good that the playback volume has a limit, otherwise....

kaboom!

I've noted it on bugzilla - should be an easy fix.

steve wrote:

Robert J. H. wrote:It is good that the playback volume has a limit, otherwise....

kaboom!

I've noted it on bugzilla - should be an easy fix.

Never mind the old "turn it up to 11" ...

On a bright, cheery note. I've used the new Noise Reduction several times now with gentle settings and it appears to work as on the tin with few if any evil artifacts. I haven't needed to rescue projects on death's door, either, but what I've done sounds good.

Koz