How to clean up sound and volume levels from home movies?

[bamdvd]

I have home movies on videotape that I transfer to DVD+RW disks using a DVD+RW recorder. I then use TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5 to cut out unwanted scenes (that’s the only video editing I need to do and I prefer to preserve the original video quality by avoiding encoding/re-encoding the video unnecessarily).

Some of the movies from tape have poor sound (loud background hiss), or volume levels that vary from too quiet in one scene to too loud in the next scene. How can I clean up the sound and level out the sound volume?

(Don’t know if this is relevant but I also have the tools Windows Movie Maker, ffmpegGUI, and TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 although I have not used them much.) Thanks.

[yoda313]

Hello,
Check out several pro audio programs that denoise wav files (they are packaged as mp3 programs, will also boost sound). Also, audacity may work. Just rip the wav from the final mpg file (before you author it) and load it into the wav editor. Perform the enhancements, save, then remix with the mpg (use tmpgenc regualr to remultiplex the mpg and the new wav). Then author the mpg with the cleaned up audio and there you go. Have fun.
Kevin

[housepig]

if you check Lordsmurf's site, he has some good step-by-step articles on cleaning up audio. IIRC, most are aimed at SoundForge, but the principles should apply to most good audio editing programs.

[TerryG]

You might take a look at Ulead VideoStudio 8. You have to un-mux the sound to filter it, but you can do that in VS8 by outputing a sound only file and then putting in back in on another track. ‘Smart rendering’ might help preserver the video quality by not re-encoding compliant video. Ulead does have a download demo.

Here is a review:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1604607,00.asp

“In addition to the new audio-editing interface, VideoStudio also added normalization, noise removal, and several other filters (though strangely, you can't apply these filters to the audio portion of the video tracks). You can work around this by splitting the audio from the video, which places it on a separate track but feels unnecessarily awkward.”
“Also impressive is VideoStudio's unique ability for smart rendering, so if you make a minor modification after your first render, VideoStudio renders only the changed sections. Other products rerender the entire project, which takes much longer.”

[SaSi]

The tool I have mastered in audio editing (and still have not yet managed to exceed it's capabilities) is CoolEdit PRO/Adobe audition in it's current name.

Slightly expensive but worth every cent it costs.

You may also be able to find CoolEdit 98/2000, the shareware versions that have slightly limited capabilities compared to the Pro version but should cover the denoising needs. I notice some shareware depository sites still cary these older versions.

[bamdvd]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm having trouble as a first step extracting the sound to an audio file, e.g., WAV file. I use TMPGEnc DVD Author to transfer the DVD-Video files (VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD+RW disk) to an MPG file on my hard drive. How can extract a WAV file from that MPG?

[yoda313]

Hello,
Just use regular tmpgenc 2.57 (or newest version). Go to mpeg tools. Select Demultiplex. Open mpeg. Select the audio portion. Save to file and it will spit out the audio.
Kevin

[fmctm1sw]

Some of the movies from tape have poor sound (loud background hiss), or volume levels that vary from too quiet in one scene to too loud in the next scene. How can I clean up the sound and level out the sound volume?

I'll add goldwave to this growing list. Allow wavs to be played in real time to hear and see the volume difference with the meters. Also has hiss removal.

[bamdvd]

I'm still stuck on trying to get a WAV file from my MPG file, so I can then use the WAV file with one of the audio clean-up tools. My DVD+RW recorder records the audio in DVD-Video format as AC3. Thus, after I use TMPGEnc DVD Author to convert the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD+RW disk to an MPG file, it shows the audio in the MPG file as: Dolby Digital (AC-3), 48000 Hz Stereo, 384 kbps. When I use TMPGEnc Plus 2.521.58.169, MPEG Tools, DeMultiplex, open the MPG file, and select the audio portion, it saves it as an AC3 file. (I've played around with ffmpegGUI but it converts WAV to AC3 but not vice versa.)

[bamdvd]

And I should have noted that I want to end up with the same audio format that I start with -- AC3 -- because I want to transfer the edited MPG back to DVD-Video format. So, is there a way to start with an AC3 sound file, clean it up, and resave is as AC3? Or do I have to convert AC3 to WAV, clean up the WAV, and then convert it back to AC3? Thanks.

[fmctm1sw]

I think besweet will convert an ac3 to wav. Maybe Ciler's ac3tool but I'm not sure. Then you can convert back to ac3.

This maybe: http://mukoli.free.fr/ac32wav/

Or this: https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?tools=&madeby=&formatconversionselect=AC3+to+WAV&h...or+List+Guides

Or.... https://www.videohelp.com/tools?convert=AC3%20to%20WAV

[bamdvd]

I've tried what seemed to be the most straightforward tools first and I'm having good luck with both AC3Tool and Virtualdub-MPEG2 to extract the AC3 from the MPG, and then with Audacity to clean it up. Thanks for the suggestions.