Deleting or softening a "creaking" noise in recital audio in Audacity

[MLK3329]

Hello!

Is anyone an Audacity expert out there who can help me to delete, or greatly soften, a "creaking" noise from a piano pedal from 12 beautiful classical pieces of music? I sang these pieces in concert, the piano was an older baby grand (just tuned) with a beautiful sound but we had no idea about the creaking pedal, until the concert began. I've tried to soften it by using "Noise Removal" in Audacity but it just isn't enough. Each time I try a higher degree on the "Less" or "More" scale my song, of course, diminishes in volume to the point where there is no point for me singing at all! Lol!!!

It's mostly heard at the beginning of the pieces of music in the introductions. It's barely heard in the louder and/or more complicated pieces as would be the case, and more obvious in the quieter arias......painfully obvious, actually. I've watched a lot of You Tube Audacity videos with no unique suggestions other than using "Noise Removal", which I've already tried.

I'm asking in this VideoHelp Forum because of the wonderful help I just received recently in ripping the audio from a Movie DVD and uploading it to my Mac for editing in Audacity. The purpose is for my new demo and eventually, my soon-to-be completed music Website.

Thank you if someone has any ideas!
MLK3329

[zoobie]

this may sound nuts but you may be able to go back and record the pedal creaking by itself...then make a perfect "negative" of it...and insert it in it's own timeline over the creaks in the main recording...thusly cancelling out the overall creak

[Xpenguin17]

Is the creaking constant or does it come at random? The only way to remove it is if you can create a noise profile of an area where nothing but the creaks sound.

[lordsmurf]

Not really. You'll almost always augment your singing in the process.
At best, it's going to be an unnatural sound.

[jagabo]

Pedal creak from a piano would not be constant. It would only occur when one of the pedals moved up or down.

The creak probably has a base frequency and several odd harmonics. Using very steep notch filters (at the base frequency and the first few harmonics) you may be able to tone down the creaks without too adversely effecting the music. Use the Equalization filter with "draw curves".

As others have suggested, you could also try the training the noise filter with a sample of the creaking only (you can probably find one somewhere in the recording), then applying the filter to the whole piece.

[MLK3329]

Hello..

Thank you everyone for your input! In answer to Xpenquin17, no, the creak is not constant and is usually obvious at the very beginning of a song; usually a quieter aria. Zoobie, if the piano was in the State I'm living in right now, I might even try your suggestion. The "creak" bothers the heck out of me, but maybe no one else will even care. Lol!

I have tried isolating the "creak" and then creating a noise profile. It did seem to lessen it a bit, but not entirely. I would like to use the Notch Filter option but I'll definitely have to review the You Tube video on that! It seems almost impossible to find that particular "peak" but it would certainly be well worth it if I could isolate it and then "Notch" it. ( I've never really spent much time playing with this function so I'm sure that what I just wrote sounds really inane!) I will also try your suggestions, jagabo, using the Equalization filter with "draw curves". Not quite sure exactly how to do this, but I'll study up on it. Audacity is pretty new to me, but I'm learning!

Thanks again!
MLK3329