Help with poor audio

Maverick wrote on 10/25/2003, 7:49 AM

The audio track I have been given from a lecture that took place in a large hall is not very good.

The speaker wasn't very loudly spoken, there is a lot of background hiss and, as the speaker has a low voice, there is a lot of low frequency resonance.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I could amke the speaker clearer just by using V4? I do have Cool Edit Pro but would rather keep 'in-house' if poss.

Cheers

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/25/2003, 8:21 AM

You really need something like Noise Reduction to remove the hiss without removing too much of the wanted signal. But that’s an extra purchase. You might try using an EQ to roll off the bottom end below 200Hz and the very top above 12,000 Hz. Then boost the midrange a bit to try and get his voice above the room noise. Try around 5,000 Hz. If there is room noise that is not in the vocal range you might try attenuating that a few dB to lessen its effect. A noise gate might also help for the areas of dead space that are just hiss. Just set it above the noise floor and adjust the attack and release to sound as natural as possible when he starts talking.

I would download the demo of Noise Reduction and play around that. Take very small samples. If it cleans it up, you need to decide if the cost is worth it.

~jr

Maverick wrote on 10/25/2003, 8:30 AM

Thanks - I'll give that a whirl.

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/25/2003, 10:57 AM

If there is enough of a silent space in the recording, try using Acoustic Mirror (if you have Forge) to take a sample of the room's ambience. Then negatively apply it to the recording. It sometimes works to clean up the echo/flutter in a room.