I need help! Audio cleaning on vhs transfer to DVD

[GoggleboxUK]

Hi everyone, great forum you have here and I'm so glad I found it as I really need some help.

I've always enjoyed playing around with movie editing and have recently started trying to get more serious about it.

I've bought quite a few progras but really only know the basics of them.

My problem is this: I have started transferring a lot of my rare old movies from VHS to DVD and have begun working on one that has horrible background noise constantly running through it. I've cleaned up the video quite well using a combination of Nero 7, Ulead VideoStudio 11 and VReveal but can't do much with the audio.

I've tried seperating the audio in VideoStudio and applying filters but i think I've got a conflict because when I try to save the output it crashes my system after creating a 0 byte file on myHDD.

I was told (by an overkeen sales assistant) that Audacity is the way to go as I can create a filter from a portion of the video where there is nothing but the horrible background noise. I've isolated a 4 second track that fits the bill perfectly but I have literally no idea what to do with it in Audacity. It's such a huge program (as are all Adobe) and it took me 2 years to be conversant with Photoshop so I thought I'd ask the advice of those who know.

Does anyone know of a guide that will give me a step by step, newbie friendly helping hand with this? Alternatively is there another way I can clean the audio track up nicely?

Please be gentle with me, I love doing this sort of thing but I really am very new to it all.

Thanks in advance.

[Gavino]

I was told (by an overkeen sales assistant) that Audacity is the way to go as I can create a filter from a portion of the video where there is nothing but the horrible background noise. I've isolated a 4 second track that fits the bill perfectly but I have literally no idea what to do with it in Audacity. It's such a huge program (as are all Adobe)...

Do you mean Adobe Audition?
Audacity is a free (but powerful) audio editor and unlikely to be pushed by a sales assistant.

[GoggleboxUK]

I was told (by an overkeen sales assistant) that Audacity is the way to go as I can create a filter from a portion of the video where there is nothing but the horrible background noise. I've isolated a 4 second track that fits the bill perfectly but I have literally no idea what to do with it in Audacity. It's such a huge program (as are all Adobe)...

Do you mean Adobe Audition?
Audacity is a free (but powerful) audio editor and unlikely to be pushed by a sales assistant.

Hi Gavino

Yes, my apologies, I mean Audition. I told you I was a noob.

[jagabo]

Audacity has a similar function (sample noise only, then remove) but it doesn't work well with some types of noise.

[GoggleboxUK]

Thanks jagabo, I'll see if it does the job. The noise is a static crackle and pop (sounds like a breakfast cereal ) rather than a hiss so maybe....

[lordsmurf]

Ulead VS is a basic consumer editor, not a restoration tool. You'd be better off in VirtualDub (best), Avisynth or TMPGEnc Plus.

For audio restoring, drop Audition. Again, it's a nice low-end pro editor, not the best at filter abilities. Look more to Sound Forge (payware), or Audacity (freeware). Yes, Sound Forge is more powerful than Audacity, but Audacity is nice to have too, since it's free.

You should really do some reading at these links, for help and guides to do exactly what you want:

• DVD Project Help > Restore, Filter, Improve Quality / digitalFAQ.com
  
• Video Guides > Restoring Audio Quality > SoundForge Filters / digitalFAQ.com
  
• Restoration subforum / videohelp.com

That's it.

[GoggleboxUK]

Wow, thanks Lordsmurf. Very helpful indeed, much appreciated.

[GoggleboxUK]

Thanks to everyone who offered advice here. I managed to do a decent job of restoring the audio using both Audacity and VideoStudio.

Much appreciated!

[jagabo]

GoggleboxUK, could you supply a short (10 or 15 seconds) sample of your source audio? With a mix of silent (except for noise) and non-silent sections.

[GoggleboxUK]

GoggleboxUK, could you supply a short (10 or 15 seconds) sample of your source audio? With a mix of silent (except for noise) and non-silent sections.

Yes I can do that.

Will a WAV file be suitable and do you know somewhere I can host it so that I can put a link to it that you can download?

[jagabo]

A Wav file will be fine. You can upload files up to ~30 MB here.

[GoggleboxUK]

GoggleboxUK, could you supply a short (10 or 15 seconds) sample of your source audio? With a mix of silent (except for noise) and non-silent sections.

Here's the clip:

https://forum.videohelp.com/album.php?albumid=7&attachmentid=1271

[jagabo]

Something seems to have gone wrong with the upload. Maybe if you zip it up...

[GoggleboxUK]

Did I put it in the right place? The only place I could find to upload to was albums. It sai WAV files were accepted ut seemed to refer more to images?

[jagabo]

The web site seems to think it's a picture, not a WAV file. All you need to do is click on the "Upload Files / Manage Attachemnts" button, press Browse, navigate to the file, then press the upload button.

[GoggleboxUK]

Where is the "Upload Files / Manage Attachemnts" button? Is it on my profile page?

[jagabo]

Where is the "Upload Files / Manage Attachemnts" button? Is it on my profile page?

Below where you type in your reply.
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[GoggleboxUK]

Where is the "Upload Files / Manage Attachemnts" button? Is it on my profile page?

Below where you type in your reply.
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D'Oh!

[GoggleboxUK]

There it is, thanks jagabo.

[jagabo]

Thanks GoggleboxUK. Got it. I like to play around with different audio and video problems so I keep an archive of little samples.

[Soopafresh]

Edit - Nevermind

[jagabo]

I found that a sharp notch filter at 8 KHz and another at 1 KHz got rid of the two annoying whines that ran through the entire sample, without damaging the remaining audio much. The crackle that's left is more problematic. A little noise reduction or a mild low pass filter took the edge off the crackle without dulling the sound too much.