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Need some audio cleanup help please (hiss)
I recently finished a stage production, and upon playing the DVD through my stereo, I noticed a slight Hiss in the background– likely a result of the audio tech cranking the gain on the 10 separate hanging microphones over the stage.
I am looking for some tips or suggestions on getting rid of the hiss if possible. I cannot hear the noise when it runs through my TV speakers, only through the stereo, or if i turn up the TV REALLY LOUD.
I ran the audio through CoolEdit 2000 “hiss removal”, which seemed to help, but i’d like to try and clean it up a little better if I can. Vegas has a large array of audio plugins, but most of them seem slightly useless.
Thanks in advance.
Eric.Eric Blissmer, Owner/Producer
DV Memories Video, Inc.
Your Local Videographer
http://www.dvmemories.us
Business Promotional Video, Weddings, Events, Editing, Transfers, Duplication and more! -
7 Replies
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Been doing some research, and it looks like thats about all i’m going to be able to do. I’ve had good success in the past with hiss removal, but I dont normally have this much hiss. I do alot of transfers from cassette tape to CD, and its fairly easy to clean up.
I’m going to try tinkerins some more with the the paragraphic equalizer (again–this time with hiss “removed” )and try to cut off a bit of the lower frequencies, and some of the higher frequencies and see if it makes it better.
Its hard to find a happy medium, i’ve found that in order to eliminate the noise, it also distorts the audio that I want to keep, and makes it sound like a bad mp3.Eric Blissmer, Owner/Producer
DV Memories Video, Inc.
Your Local Videographer
http://www.dvmemories.us
Business Promotional Video, Weddings, Events, Editing, Transfers, Duplication and more! -
You say you’ve tried “hiss removal” with Cool Edit, but does your version of CE have “Noise Reduction”, in which you highlight a sample of the noise by itself, and then eliminate that noise from the rest of the file? I’ve done that in Cool Edit Pro many times, with very good results.
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Yes, it does. Whats the diff between “hiss reduction” and “noise reduction”?
I did select a portion of “quiet”, and it worked pretty good, I’d just like to see if i can tweak it some more.Thanks.
Eric Blissmer, Owner/Producer
DV Memories Video, Inc.
Your Local Videographer
http://www.dvmemories.us
Business Promotional Video, Weddings, Events, Editing, Transfers, Duplication and more! -
I’m using Cool Edit Pro 2.0, so I’m not sure what the exact difference between “Hiss Removal” & “Noise Reduction” is on your version. In fact, I’ve never really used Hiss Reduction, since Noise Reduction almost always works for me.
It looks like the difference is that Hiss Reduction is more automatic, and Noise Reduction requires you to show it what you consider to be noise, then you tell it what percentage of the noise you want to remain. If you tell it to eliminate 100% of the noise, you will certainly notice the audio artifacts of the noise reduction. I usually start with a setting of 70%, which tends to remove enough noise to get the job done, without making too many of the swirly “bad mp3” noises that 100% can result in.
Here’s my workflow:
-Highlight a brief moment of noise in the audio track (less than 1 second, containing NOTHING but the noise)
-Go to “Noise Reduction”, select “Get noise from selection” or something like that, and it will quickly analyze the noise you’ve selected
-Exit Noise Reduction
-Select the entire audio track
-Hit F2 (or navigate your way back to the Noise Reduction screen)
-Select 70%, and hit “OK”, then wait for it to finish, and see how it worked
Sorry if this is the same workflow you’ve already tried. If it isn’t, give it a try!
-Josh
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I just tried doing the noise removal instead of the hiss removal, and didnt notice much difference.
Its strange because at the beginning, where i took the sample, it seems to have eliminated the noise, but various parts throughout, it seems like there is still some hiss. I will have to keep tinkering with it until I get it just right, although i think i’ll save a 2 minute sample, rather than waiting for the entire hour to get updated.I was also messing with the clipping (there is some during a couple songs) removal which works good, as long as i dont select the entire track, just the clipped portions.
I also tried the normalize function, which is “supposed” to bring lower levels up, and leave higher levels alone, but it ends up just decreasing the overall volume. I dont get it.
I really, truly hate “house” audio people who dont know how to keep their friggin hands off of the knobs. He was up and down, higher and lower, on and off during the entire production….And of course, the wireless dropouts, which aren’t really his fault. But EVERYTHING is my fault. Hopefully i can get this thing sorted out. I have to figure it out tonight, project is due Saturday Morning, and still have to re-render and burn to DVD.
Eric Blissmer, Owner/Producer
DV Memories Video, Inc.
Your Local Videographer
http://www.dvmemories.us
Business Promotional Video, Weddings, Events, Editing, Transfers, Duplication and more! -
Eric,
My day job has me doing NR quite often for our shooters. I use Audition (cooledit) at work to cleanup location audio and it is a great program for this.
I prefer the Noise Reduction workflow over the hiss removal option.
One really cool thing you can do is tell it how much NR to do in any given Frequency band. For example, why process the bass and upper bass frequencies. Target the frequency band where the hiss is. This gives you less artifacts overall. Hiss is going to be most noticeable in the mids and upper mids where your hearing is most sensitive. Try targeting
2000-6000 hz. Better yet, learn how to use the spectral view to locate the frequency range of the hiss. The objective is to reduce the hiss to a livable level. In most cases the total elimination of the hiss creates artifacts and unnatural sound. Follow the workflow mentioned by previous poster but add this step after you capature profile. Directly under the Noiseprint window you will see a window with a straight line. When you move your cursor within the box you will see the frequncy the cursor is at in a little box under the second box. Move to 2000HZ and click on the line (this adds a point to the line). Now place another point just to the right of your first point. Now Go up to 6000HZ and put another two points. Now click and drag your 1st two points on the left side all the way down. Then go to the right side and drag down the two far right points all the way down. Now what you will see on the line is a big bump from 2000-6000hz, and nothing below and above that range. This tells the program to Noise reduce only from 2000-6000Hz. Now set your Noise Reduction Slider to 50% and close the NR Window. Out on the timeline highlight 15 – 20 seconds of clip and go back to NR window and click OK.
This will process the highlighted section. Play thru it to see if 50% reduction is good enough. After listening test you can undo and highlight the entire clip for processing or sliding in a higher ratio on reduction slider. One last tip, EQ is not a good way to get rid of hiss. As you found out already you end up with very muddy sound. EQ’s are great for enhanceing the audio track or applying a high pass filter around 120HZ to get rid of low end rumble. By the way, a little eq lift by a few db around 2000-4000 can make your vocal cut thru better if it is a bit muddy.Hope this helps, good luck, let your ears be the judge, and no when to stop processing.
Later..Rick.
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