Removing background noise

[Don Baarns]

Works for me…

I’ll run it and see if it’s any different.

Some audio can’t be saved no matter what we are using. Just depends on the source and the nature of the noise compared to the dialog.

[Melanie Easton]

Hi Don,

Sorry for the insane delay – have had some absurd technical dramas these past few weeks (include smashing my laptop screen – aughhh).

Anyway, I’ve attached the audio from one of the clips that I’m working with. I’ve got 7 of these (all a similar length) to deal with. If you want to take a shot at cleaning it up I am most happy for you to, but please don’t expend much time/energy on any of it. Not really worth it – happy to go with the subtitle suggestion in this case!

Note: I tried to attach the file to my message post and it went to the link below so not sure if it shows up as attached to this thread or not, but here it is:

https://f1.creativecow.net/9463/audio-for-charity-video-with-atrocious-background-noise#9464

Thanks!

[Don Baarns]

Hi Melanie,

I was travelling on business so didn’t get back to this until today.

Here’s two versions, the first with one pass of Spectral Denoiser (RX5), and a second version with 2 passes, one Spectral to knock down the majority, and a second pass with the Dialog Denoiser.

There’s also a hi/low pass.

You could be more aggressive if desired, but both of these are certainly a decent improvement, with NO hand processing (you could easily run the complete file safely without damaging your audio.)

If you have questions or comments, fire away.

Don

9484_9463headspace16denoised.zip

[Melanie Easton]

Hi Don!

Sorry for the extreme delay in reply again. Thanks for the help! That actually makes a surprisingly decent difference in the audio, and is significantly better than the results I got in Audacity, which was just causing too much distortion to the voices and making it worse. I think the one pass version is best – as you said, the two passes kind of just draws attention to how bad the recording is!

This is great though – I just saw on izotope’s website that they have a free trial so I might give this a go. Also would come in handy for a few other videos I’m working on with less than stellar audio, so will play around with it and see if I can get it to work as well for me. Pretty new to audio software though so might be a bit of a learning curve for me.

Thanks again for your help and advice! 🙂

[Peter Groom]

you can use the trial and hear the effect , but saving or recording isnt allowed in the trial. Hand in pocket before that becomes available.
Peter

Post Production Dubbing Mixer

[Don Baarns]

[Melanie Easton] “This is great though – I just saw on izotope’s website that they have a free trial so I might give this a go. Also would come in handy for a few other videos I’m working on with less than stellar audio, so will play around with it and see if I can get it to work as well for me. Pretty new to audio software though so might be a bit of a learning curve for me.
“

Melanie,

RX is in a different league compared to tools in Audacity. It’s a pro-grade solution, it’s not cheap but you get what you pay for.

Worth it for anybody serious about audio-production/restoration. It has a great set of other tools beyond just Noise Reduction, so it will solve issues and/or improve other areas that are not even on your radar screen yet.

People in our FB group get a deal on it ($275 for Standard edition last time I checked…) We have around 700 people in the group who use it regularly to solve a wide range of issues.

Again: An investment, but worth it.

Don Baarns
Audio Rescue RX – iZotope RX Users:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AudioRescue/

Studio One and iZotope RX Tutorials for Narrators, Podcasters, VO, Spoken Word:
https://www.youtube.com/user/RedBaarnsAudio

[Melanie Easton]

Ahhhh, okay – thanks Peter and thanks again Don. I’m not opposed to buying good software but at this stage it’s not something I’d use often enough to justify – I’m not getting paid for any of the stuff I’m working on, and I primarily do music videos at the moment anyway (in large part because the audio is locked in before I even start shooting – I’m a one person operation and recording/editing sound is a bit too much to handle by myself). This was just a charity project I was doing as a favor, so won’t drop the money on it now – but definitely a good program to be aware of if I start editing audio more seriously in future.

Thanks so much for all the fantastic advice and assistance here. I’m learning a lot!