Increase volume, reduce hiss - which filter?

[daamon]

Hi all,

I've recently shot a wedding for a friend and thought, at the time, that my manual audio recording volume setting was OK - I was only using the mic on my Canon XM2. Well, turns out it wasn't.

I'm editing the footage in Premiere Pro 1.5, and have Sound Forge 7.0 with a whole load of digitalFAQ "Paragraphic EQ" presets loaded.

In general, upping the audio gain in Premiere has sufficed, but I have one bit of footage where the speaker is really quiet. Upping the gain to the point where you can hear there voice, also raises the background hiss to an unacceptable level.

I've done a search and can't really find any useful info. I'm attempting trial and error, but it's not too much trial and a lot of error. The problem is, I don't really understand audio and all the frequencies involved with voices and hiss, and so don't know what filters to use in Premiere or Sound Forge.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm not aiming for it to be perfect, just reasonable.

Thanks.

[guns1inger]

I'd be playing around with EQ, dropping the high end while boosting (carefully) the lower-mid range. Just play around in small increments until you get something acceptable.

[jakol]

This can be done easily with Adobe Audition, dont know with Sound Forge.

[lordsmurf]

SoundForge can do it. Just have to play. Start from a preset, and work from there. I've done all kinds of things.

If the audio is REALLY screwd up, maybe Goldwave, though it tends to leave a "metallic" or "digital" sound. Worth it on really bad audio, not on small/medium fixes.

[jakol]

does SoundForge has hiss removal filter? not the equalizer, equalizer will tend to lessen/mask the hiss noise so as the sound of the same frequency.

In Audition it has a built in hiss removal filter and for advance removal filter you can profile the "hiss noise" before applying it to the whole audio clip , the filter will look for the hiss noise profile thru the entire clip and eliminate it.

[Redd]

Goldwave has IMO very good filters. I've managed to clean up some incredibly bad old VHS tape audio.

[lordsmurf]

does SoundForge has hiss removal filter? not the equalizer, equalizer will tend to lessen/mask the hiss noise so as the sound of the same frequency.

In Audition it has a built in hiss removal filter and for advance removal filter you can profile the "hiss noise" before applying it to the whole audio clip , the filter will look for the hiss noise profile thru the entire clip and eliminate it.

That method tends to leave "in and out" type artifacts that piss me off more than the hiss. I would rather work over the whole file, it at least preserves and "evenness" to the file, and is the lesser of evils. It is hard to notice the "missing" values when hiss is removed. Nobody has ears that good.

[daamon]

Hi all,

Thanks for the input and discussion - I've been banished to work in Sydney for a few days, so will have a crack at your suggestions soon.

In the meantime, a few questions back at you guys:

Start from a preset, and work from there.

I have all the presets from digitalFAQ.com installed... Bearing in mind I may well be following gunsl1nger's suggestion, which one's a good one to start with?

The audio isn't REALLY screwed up, just pretty quiet. Boosting the volume (I presume) just boosts everything, including the ambient background noise, which is the hiss I'm noticing clearly.

I have Goldwave, but I agree on the "metallic" results...

does SoundForge has hiss removal filter?

Not sure. I'll have a look. I have a trial version of Adove Audition, maybe I'll give that a go if I have no luck.

Goldwave has IMO very good filters.

Which one(s) would be useful for my needs?

I would rather work over the whole file, it at least preserves and "evenness" to the file, and is the lesser of evils. It is hard to notice the "missing" values when hiss is removed. Nobody has ears that good.

Though I'm no audio expert, this makes sense to me and I'm inclined to agree. The audio is a reading during a wedding ceremony, so I'd like to do as good a job as I can.


Many thanks for your help!!!

[lordsmurf]

Run a normalize on it. 70-80%
Then try Remove Hiss ALT 2
If that wasn't enough, do it again.

I've also got some Flescher-Munson hiss removal filters (based off those start settings). Takes out a different style hiss than the Remove Hiss one do.

And if it hurts tone too much, run a High restore, preferably on of the combos that does a "hiss maintained" thing.

That's what I'd do. I have about 75 audio files on my system right now, been doing these for 3 days now, hiss was a real killer on about 20 of them.

Upload a short clip. I can run some filters over it, show you what I can do on it.

[daamon]

Hi lordsmurf,

What can I say? You're a legend... Your advice is very much appreciated. Thank you.

I'll try your suggestions and see how I get on. If I get stuck, I'll upload a small clip (how long would you need, in terms of running time?).

Again, many thanks.

[daamon]

Hi lordsmurf,

Here's a clip of the original. I've followed your suggestions and it definitely sounds better, but I was wondering what could be done in the hands of someone much more knowledgeable than I.

I'll continue to experiment, but if you can have a quick listen and play and provide some pointers that'd be great.

Many thanks,
Daamon.

shez_orig_short.wav

[lordsmurf]

Dead link.

[daamon]

Dead link.

Right click -> Save Target As...

You should be able to download the sound byte...

[lordsmurf]

Nope.

[daamon]

Now?

[lordsmurf]

Nope.

This link sucks:
http://us.f1f.yahoofs.com/bc/6411bde/bc/Temp/shez_orig_short.wav?bfyPc4CBWJlL4Kfq

and then I get CANNOT FIND SERVER.

Put it somewhere else. Yahoo briefcase blows.

[daamon]

5h1t - I'm really sorry. I'll find somewhere that's easily accessible...

EDIT: OK. Here goes...

There's a 10 second clip of the original, undoctored, audio here (1.9Mb):
http://www.savefile.com/files/5452413

There's the full 39 second clip of the original, undoctored, audio here (7.2Mb):
http://www.savefile.com/files/5703706

Fingers crossed that this works... (Unaccessed files are deleted after 30 days).

[lordsmurf]

Nope. That doesn't work either. I PM'd you something. Use that.

[daamon]

Nope. That doesn't work either. I PM'd you something. Use that.

OK. I followed your PM.

Seems "savefile.com" are new and in beta, and are experiencing some teething troubles - I got the link to work on the third attempt...

Thanks for your patience and help!!!

[lordsmurf]

I think your volume is fine.

Removing the "air" noise from the background will be next to impossible because it changes, even several times within that short clip. More filters may remove it, but you'll end up with distorted voices or digital noises.

I did this:



and then this:



and ended up with this.

Just for kicks, this is what GoldWave can do. It rips out noise, but it beats up audio that is left.

If there's a middle ground, I don't know what it is.

Here's the original if somebody thinks they can do better.

I tried one more combo of things, and get this.
Used D98 @ 8.0, then HR/S, then HR/H filters (means nothing to you, but something to me).

Well, that's enough playtime for me.

[daamon]

Hi lordsmurf,

I've applied your two filters you mention above to the whole clip and it came out better than my best effort.

Thank you so much for having patience while I was trying (numerous times) to upload an example, and for your excellent help.

I particularly like the degree to which Goldwave cleared unwanted background noise, just a shame the person ended up sounding like Metal Mickey...

Used D98 @ 8.0, then HR/S, then HR/H filters (means nothing to you, but something to me).

You're not wrong...

Well, that's enough playtime for me.

Again - thanks so much. You should know that you're immortalised with a piece of you in the audio of this couple's wedding video...

[lordsmurf]

You should know that you're immortalised with a piece of you in the audio of this couple's wedding video...

Send me a cute bridesmaid and we'll call it even. :P

[daamon]

Send me a cute bridesmaid and we'll call it even. :P

OK - But I'll have to do a fair degree of image doctoring first...

[guns1inger]

Always up for a challenge, here is my attempt.

The first is just using Steinberg's Clean! version 4, which came free on a magazine coverdisk when version 5 was released.

The second has had some further work done in Sound Forge.

[daamon]

@ gunsl1nger - Wow! What did you do? I've upped the volume and there's much less background noise in both clips.

I'd say that the Sound Forge effort (the second one) is the better of the two - though the first one is impressive on its own.

Can you describe your steps in Sound Forge for the second one so I can try applying that to my full clip?

Thanks.

P.S. @ lordsmurf - Please don't take the above as "pissing on your fireworks" (as we English say). Your help is still appreciated.

[guns1inger]

The second version is the first version (your original + Clean!4) and a variation of LordSmurf's first paragraphic EQ setting. The sound forge work was made easier because Steinberg had removed the worst of it beforehand.

[daamon]

So, I should try to download (where? I'll have a hunt) this Steinberg Clean! v4 and can you provide a screenshot or description of the variation you've applied to lordsmurf's paragraphic EQ setting (which one?).

Cheers...

It's useful being in (roughly) the same timezone...

[lordsmurf]

I'm always on the look out for new audio cleaning software. I just did about 300 audio files in the past 10 days, yet I had about a dozen of them turn out not so great.

Any idea where you can get Steinberg's Clean! version 4? I did some google searching, but mostly got dead links and dead ends.

[daamon]

@ lordsmurf - Based on this link, it looks like it's now in v5.0 and a Pinnacle product.

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, I'm under the impression that v5 is about as good as Pinnacle Studio. I had heard about this software in the past, but didn't give it much thought.