Audio editing tools

John10Yes wrote on 6/5/2006, 8:11 AM

I am relatively new to VEgas and have never done any audio editing. I am wondering what the best (user friendsly and works well) for editing audio? I would like something for my current project that can filter out unwanted noise (got some bad wind noise on the recording and some high pitched whirring from an old video tape) and would also like it to be able to edit stand along audio to cut and past and put it back together again differently. Any thoughts?

Comments

stopint wrote on 6/13/2006, 7:13 AM

use sound forge for audio editing ... adobe audition is fine also but sound forge works well in tandem with vegas ...

BradlyMusic wrote on 6/13/2006, 11:41 AM

Sound Forge is a good addition, but it really does none of the things that you listed. Vegas can rearrange audio, cut,copy, paste, slide around, crossfade, etc. Sound Forge can not do these tasks very well. For getting rid of things like background noise, you should look at the Sony Noise reduction plugin. This works very well for background noises that have a constant tone in nature. The noise reduction is a DX plugin and can therefore be used within Vegas. Sometimes you can find a bundle offer with Sound Forge and the included Noise reduction plugin. If you can find that, then that would be your best bet, but if not then you should just look at getting the Noise reduction plugin and you can do everything you mentioned in Vegas.

Chienworks wrote on 6/13/2006, 1:42 PM

I'll also add that wind noise is very difficult to remove in any software. If the wind is behind voice only then EQ can help to filter out the non-vocal frequencies. The remaining voice may sound a bit weird, but it can stand out a lot better. Vegas can apply EQ just as easily as Sound Forge does.

kbruff wrote on 6/14/2006, 2:23 PM

Virtos noise reduction plugin

google it

newhope wrote on 6/15/2006, 7:32 AM

Waves Z-Noise but it's US$800... works fairly well though except for the added delay it adds if you use it as a real time plugin. You need to offset the audio to compensate for the processing delay.

Great when rendered as nonrealtime though.

Audition does have it's own set of built in noise reduction plugins but they are aimed more at tape hiss or vinyl click and pop removal.

With any of these though it's a case of suck it and see as some plugins are more effective on certain types of noise than others and some noise just isn't easily removed particularly if the fundamental frequencies of the noise and the desired audio overlap.

Stephen Hope
New Hope Media