Increase volume, reduce hiss - which filter?

[daamon]

As you're a mod, can you answer this? As guns1inger got v4.0 free on a CD with a magazine, does that make it like freeware or shareware? If so, would receiving a copy of the CD be legal?

[lordsmurf]

As you're a mod, can you answer this? As guns1inger got v4.0 free on a CD with a magazine, does that make it like freeware or shareware? If so, would receiving a copy of the CD be legal?

My educated guess would be "yes" and that it is indeed shareware. I don't see how a magazine could give it out any other way, and in fact in my decade of getting magazines with software discs, I've never seen anything BUT shareware or freeware (demos, trials, vaporware, abandonware).

[daamon]

Thanks.

There's one question that keeps resurfacing in my mind... "Why can't Sound Forge (easily) do what's been done in Steinberg Clean?"

Like I said, I've no experience with fixing audio, so if it's a silly question, please enlighten me gently...

[syeager]

To clean up bad sound, I have used Goldwave ( for removing any low buzz ) and WavePad ( for removing hiss ). Both will increase volume. On WavePad, you must select the option Noise Reduction, select Remove Hum and Hiss, and set the Noise Gate Level to -30db ( if you do not do this, it will cut out soft sounds too much ). I have tried other tools, but as others have said, they leave artifacts in the audio that are unacceptable. Of course your results may vary, but these products work well for me. Let me know if they work for you.

[daamon]

Hi syeager,

I'll see how I go trying to find Steinberg Clean - as I was really impressed with guns1inger's results (the second one).

Thanks for the tip - I may well give it a go...

[guns1inger]

Pinnacle allowed the magazine to give away a copy of version 4 with an upgrade offer for version 5. I suspect the rights to the free version are limited only to those copies obtained through the purchase of the magazine in question (Australian Personal Computer, November 2004 issue). It required on-line registration to get a serial number.

It is a lot more comprehensive than just a de-hiss filter. It has specialist filters for removing clicks, hiss, static, rumble and hum. I have used it to remove earth or ground hum from recordings. It analyses the audio and does a first pass setting of the filters, which you can then adjust further manually. It is also possible, on most of the filters, to lissten to just what is being removed - that is, to listen to just the clicks and pops, or just the hiss.

It also has a basic EQ and other output filters, and the ability to adjust speaker placement and stereo spread. A very nice pickup for $8.99 (the price of the magazine back then).

[jakol]

edited with adobe audition..here:edited.wav

edit. amplified n equalized.

[daamon]

I don't have sound on my work PC - I'll check it out at home... Thanks for the input.

Out of interest, how does it compare to guns1inger's second attempt in this post?

If it's comparable, can you describe (in reasonable detail, coz I'm a total newbie at tinkering with audio) what you did in Audition. I've a trial copy that's yet to be installed...

[thecoalman]

To go back to the original reason, To tell you the truth Daamon I would use the automatic setting for things such as weddings. I did my cousins wedding and picked up the vows from about 50 ft. away and they weren't miced.

The only time that I'm using the manual is for extremely loud situtations which is mandatory. Here's a tip for you, if you ever record anything really loud like a band or fireworks there's a setting on the VCR menu to turn the microphone attenuator on/off. If you don't have it on recording very loud audio it will clip. No doubt about it. As far as the maunal setting you should be aiming for the big dot at the top of the db levels. Right where it starts to get yellow.

[jakol]

Its up to you to compare , we all have different ears in audio.. :P
What i did in audition is using the noise removal tool, profiling the noise pattern by actually selecting the noise part, in ur case its pretty easy coz there are parts in the audio clip which r all noise, then applying the noise profile to the entire clip(this can be adjusted to your prefference) thus eliminating it.
You can further enhance the audio now by using the equalizer/amplify filters which i didnt do.

Adobe audition is a very nice audio editor been using it since Syntrillium owns it ..its called Cool Edit Pro, then adobe bought it nothing changed much since they got it.

[daamon]

Hi thecoalman - I remember, we have the same cam...

If I remember rightly, it was set to automatic. I'd guess my distance from the speaker was around 50 feet.

I think there were a couple of contributory factors:

1) The speaker was overcome emotionally and was speaking quietly and cracking up (not laughing) whilst speaking.

2) There were people sitting just to my right (out of shot), and I think their ambient noise affected the recording.

Thanks for the tips - I knew the one about the "big dot", but the others are useful to know...

I'm toying with the idea of hiring a uni-directional mic with a view to buying one if it proves itself. I'm also considering a radio-mic arrangement, but I think the price might be prohibitive...

[thecoalman]

If I remember rightly, it was set to automatic. I'd guess my distance from the speaker was around 50 feet.
...

Well you could use the manual as well but if you do and get anything that goes into the red it's screwed. If you think that hiss sounds bad, there's no amount of filters that is going to fix that.

[daamon]

Audio is my weak point - I really do need to practice and learn... But it's useful to know to avoid red sound levels, I didn't realise it'd be that much trouble...

[thecoalman]

Audio is my weak point - I really do need to practice and learn... But it's useful to know to avoid red sound levels, I didn't realise it'd be that much trouble...

Isn't exactly my strong point either, but I knew you had the same cam so I figured I'd share that little bit of knowledge with you about that setting in the VCR menu. I have 12 hours of footage that's crap tying to figure it out until I found it on page 123? of the manual. Didn't matter what I did, it would be entirely too low then he'd hit a snare drum and it would clip which BTW wouldn't show on the levels, only the video. Direct feed from the soundboard produced same affect. Apparently when you turn that on it decreses the amount of "travel" <---------- my non-tecnical term---------- on the levels allowing you turn them up but not overpower it with loud sounds. You might even want to try experimenting with it in your situation, you'll be able to turn up the levels but someone coughing right next to you won't overpower it...........

[guns1inger]

daamon - I pm'd you re: the file - did you receive ?

[jakol]

the link here to videohelp seems down.

edited file re-up here:http://www.qfile.de/dl/114865/edited.wav.html

[daamon]

@ jakol - Cheers for the detailed directions, the Audition info and the revised link. The noise profiling function sounds interesting. I may well install the trial and give it a go.

I'll be sure to check out your audio file, and report back too. Thanks for your time.

@ thecoalman - "page 123"... "If all else fails, RTFM!" - even if it's got a lot of pages! Thanks for the info - saves me either searching, or not even realising that it exists.

@ guns1inger - PM'd you back. Cheers.

@ All - Thanks for all your help and personal time. It's really appreciated. I've probably got enough to solve my problem, and for me to experiment further. I'll report back so you know how all your hard work has panned out.

[daamon]

@ jakol - I checked out your audio clip - there are traces of a metallic sort of sound to it.

I've finally gone with guns1inger's approach - he very kindly worked on the full clip for me.

Again, thanks to everyone for their input. Seems like Steinberg Clean is a good audio tool to consider...

[dvd3500]

I just stumbled across this. I have used Clean! 2SE on tapes and LPs but it is limited to 44.100 Khz WAVs.
Can these later versions handle 48 Khz WAVs?

[guns1inger]

I answered in your other post - version 4 appears to convert everything to 16/44.1. Don't know about version 5, but an email to Stienberg (Pinnacle ?) would probably get you an answer.

[dvd3500]

Confirmed from Steinberg. CLean 5 does that too. I am thinkint MAGIX is better.

[AvalonMan]

To reduce hiss and other noise in audio I use Pristine Sounds.

Specifically for hiss, say from an old analogue tape, load the wav file into Pristine Sounds, select a quite section with only hiss (only need a short section), get Pristine Sounds to sample the frequency characteristics, and then run the de-noise routine (I think that's what it is called) to filter out the sampled section of noise from the whole file - there are some adjustments you can do in real time to get the best sounding result.

It does a very good job at reducing tape hiss from numerous music cassettes which I just can't find converted to CD.

BTW - Pristine Sounds also does a good job at removing surface noise from LPs I've converted to CD (once again there are some LPs which just haven't come out on CD, yet!) - to do this I use their Vinyl Restoration Tool and one can adjust the settings in real time to get good results.

[daamon]

Hi AvalonMan,

Cheers for the info.

For those wondering, "Pristine Sounds" can be found here: www.alienconnections.com

[AvalonMan]

Hi Daamon

The version I use is Pristine Sounds 2000. I hope the same functions are available in the 2005 version.

I'll download the latest beta version and hope to find some time to check it out.

Cheers