Help with Hiss

PeterMac wrote on 4/23/2003, 4:30 PM

After a recent trip I found that my TRV900 had suffered microphone problems. Sound was down on both channels, but worse on the right.
To a certain extent I can correct this in Vegas by increasing the gain. But then, the already hissy characteristics become intolerable, especially in quiet passages.
Audio is something I normally take for granted and I'm not well versed in correcting it at the editing stage. Can anyone guide me to the best method of reducing or eliminating the hiss without at the same time making the soundtrack muffled? Keep in mind that the original audio is already damaged.

-Pete

Comments

vitalforce2 wrote on 4/23/2003, 4:45 PM

SoFo makes a first-rate noise reduction package, actually four systems in one, called Noise Reduction 2.0. It's a little pricey ($279 list) but is sometimes packaged with other SoFo products. I got it free with the early release of Sound Forge 6. I'm pretty amateur at correcting audio, but I successfully lowered both hiss and rumble (from a basement heater vent) on a film soundtrack I'm editing, using only Noise Reduction. A free demo is downloadable on this site.

If you live in the NYC area, J&R Computer World (also on the net) has it as a free inclusion in CD Architect, I believe. You can also do a search on the Net under "noise reduction" and get a good sample of other such software, some of it at pretty low prices.

PeterMac wrote on 4/24/2003, 9:50 AM

Thanks for that information.
However, for me, that's a large hammer to crack a little nut. I'm not expecting ever to use it again once I've thrown the camera into the sea.

What about the filters and things that are shipped with Vegas 4? Won't one of those do the trick?

-Pete

mikkie wrote on 4/24/2003, 10:37 AM

probably the cheapest option for a one time sort of use would be to get a copy of Goldwave to eval. It includes a (basic?) version of what you'ld use in the SOFO plugin, where you take a snapshot of a silent passage of your waveform, & the software subtracts that snapshot from everything else. Alternatives might include the noise filter that comes with the digital plus pack for XP (assuming you're running XP), that can be had for $0 - $5.

You also mught want to use a normalize function rather then increasing the gain, as this might give you a more uniform volume increase without such a boost to the baseline, though you'll still get some.

No matter how you do it, you'll still suffer some audio loss removing the noise. Might want to mix in a bit of the other channel, or just use it entirely for both.

nolonemo wrote on 4/24/2003, 10:40 AM

Also check out CoolEdit, a shareware wav editor. I think you could do what you want in the evaluation version.

PeterMac wrote on 4/24/2003, 11:00 AM

I appreciate your advice folks. But, before I go ahead with any of these products, I have noticed in the Vegas delivery, under Track Optimised FX, there is a thing called Track EQ. This has a drop-down list of presets, one of which is 'Hiss Cut (cut above 8 kHz by 6 dB)'. Wouldn't this do - perhaps with adjustment?

Thanks again

-Pete

sms wrote on 4/24/2003, 11:48 AM

Douglas Spotted Eagle has an audio tutorial posted on the DMN website (search google for DMN). The tutorial discusses the audio aspect of V4. I haven't looked at this tutorial but put it on my list of things to do since I know less than zero about adjusting audio parameters. Check it out, sorry I don't have the link to post.

PAW wrote on 4/24/2003, 11:57 AM

EQ can hide a certain amount of hiss, if there is a pattern to the hisses you may need to use a noise reduction plugin such as SF Noise Reduction or CoolEdit Pro, both are pretty good.

It is difficult to say which is the best option without hearing the footage.

vitalforce2 wrote on 4/24/2003, 12:11 PM

Another $.02 worth: Yes, an equalizer filter will also remove hiss and rumble. If you happen to have the low-budget version of Sound Forge, it has an equalizer with more "knob" settings than the 4-setting filter within Vegas 4. Theoretically, though, you could string several EQ filters together in Vegas and make specific adjustments to each noise in each one.