How can I remove HUM from DVD's?

[Graphics Guy]

I apologize if this is not the correct forum to ask this question, if not please direct me to the correct one. I am a newbie just trying to learn how to improve my DVD's. A friend sent me a DVD of a stage presentation recorded with a digital camera located in the audience. While the video picture is great, there is a loud objectionable hum throughout the audio. Is there anyway I can remove the hum without purchasing expensive professional software, using something like Nero 7's waveeditor for example? Any suggestions or URL's to other sites will be genuinely appreciated. Respectfully,
Graphics Guy

[lordsmurf]

No.

If I had this DVD, I'd decompile it, run the audio into Goldwave and/or SoundForge (likely I would use both), and then re-author it. It's simple enough, but you need good software.

[Edmund Blackadder]

My answer is yes.

If you'd like to do it for free, you can use an old shareware version of Cool Edit 96. It's got an outstanding Noise Reduction filter (you take the noise profile of the hum and apply the noise reduction using that profile). Cool Edit 96 is an ancestor of Cool Edit Pro and Adobe Audition. And to me personally Cool Edit Pro is hands down the best, most precise, most flexible audio editor there is. Cool Edit 96 is just a somewhat stripped down older version that still got powerful noise reduction filters and other good things. It's just that you can't use it all in the same session with this shareware version. Obviously you'd get more flexibility and power with either Cool Edit Pro or Adobe Audition, but if you'd like to do it for free, Cool Edit 96 will definitely do it for you, and do it really well.

Here's the URL:

http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/cool_edit_96.shtml

Also read the user comments on how much people still love this program, after 10 years. I couldn't agree more:

http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/comments.asp?app=10

P.S.: Obviously you'd have to first demultiplex audio and decode it to WAVE PCM, before opening in Cool Edit. But that part you can easily do using one of the several freeware tools.

[lordsmurf]

Wow, I didn't know that was still available. It's not what I would do, but it's certainly worth a shot!

[Graphics Guy]

Thanks to all that took the time to answer. I went to the Cool Edit 96 site and downloaded the program but didn't see any tutorial on how to use the program, and your "PS" statement appeared to take the procedure out of the hands of a newbie.

( P.S.: Obviously you'd have to first demultiplex audio and decode it to WAVE PCM, before opening in Cool Edit. But that part you can easily do using one of the several freeware tools. )

Thanks!
Graphics Guy

[gadgetguy]

Another free option is Audacity. It also has a decent noise removal filter.

[Graphics Guy]

Is there a tutorial anywhere that a newbie could follow using Audacity?

Graphics Guy

[Edmund Blackadder]

Thanks to all that took the time to answer. I went to the Cool Edit 96 site and downloaded the program but didn't see any tutorial on how to use the program, and your "PS" statement appeared to take the procedure out of the hands of a newbie.

Here's the official Help file of Cool Edit Pro (not Cool Edit 96, although the operation it's quite similar). Open it and click on "Transform" and then in the lower part of the window find "Noise Reduction" and click on it. That section will explain to you in good detail as to how the noise reduction in Cool Edit works and what needs to be do to achieve the best results for a given situation. Please read it and it should be quite clear to you on what to do (I hope posting the Help files of no longer existing software manufacturers are not against the rules. If it is, moderators please delete this file):

coolprohelpfile.zip

As for demultiplexing, right now I don't have the time to write anything in great detail, but you need to start with DVD Decrypter in IFO mode and demultiplex the audio from video. If the original DVD has PCM soundtrack - then you're lucky as DVD Decrypter then will write you a WAV file ready for editing in Cool Edit. But if the original audio is either Dolby Digital or MPEG, then you'll need some freeware tool to convert it to WAV format (please search on the left under "Tools" on this site). I'm sure there are several free tools to convert those formats to PCM WAV.

After all that you will need to re-author your DVD, and that process will depend on the DVD authoring program that you usually use.

But in short, you cannot simply fix the sound without a complete decomposition and re-assembly of your DVD. It's just got to be done.

[gadgetguy]

Here's some instructions I wrote up a while ago for Cool Edit. The process is similar for Audacity.

To remove hiss from audio in Cool Edit…
1. Extract the audio to a .wav file
2. Start Cool Edit and open your .wav file.
3. Locate a portion of the audio that would be silent if not for the hiss.
4. Select a very small portion. The smaller the sample the better, because there is less chance of removing audio you want to keep. You can be very detailed in the selection by directly entering the Selected Start and End fields down in the lower right corner.
5. On the menu Click Transform, then select Noise Reduction
6. On the Noise Reduction window click “Get Profile From Selection”. If it is disabled you will need to increase the size of the sample. You have to find that balance of having the sample small enough to only get the noise you want to remove, but big enough that a filter can be created. Then click OK. (You do not need to save the profile, but can if you want).
7. Select the entire audio, or the portion that you want to remove the hiss from.
8. Again click Transform, then Noise Reduction.
9. The noise reduction window will open with the profile created the first time.
10. Make sure the radio button is selected for “Remove Noise”
11. Click OK and the hiss will be removed.
12. Then save the audio file. (I like to Save As under a different name and keep the original file intact until I finish the project)
13. Remux your audio and video.

[SLK001]

(I hope posting the Help files of no longer existing software manufacturers are not against the rules. If it is, moderators please delete this file).

It IS against the rules. Even though Syntrillium Software is no longer around (bought out by Adobe), the software (and the help files) are copywrited materials. Anyway, since Adobe now owns CoolEdit, they now own the copywrite.

It is best that you remove the file (before you get someone in trouble).

[Graphics Guy]

Again, thanks to all that took the time to try and help me.

GadgetGuy - I read your instructions but couldn't get past the 2nd item without being stuck. Sorry if I ask too many questons, but I am a complete newbie.

"2. Start Cool Edit and open your .wav file.
3. Locate a portion of the audio that would be silent if not for the hiss.
4. Select a very small portion. The smaller the sample the better, because there is less chance of removing audio you want to keep. You can be very detailed in the selection by directly entering the Selected Start and End fields down in the lower right corner. "

How do I change my DVD image to a .wav file so I can open it up in Cool Edit or Audacity? I opened the DVD up in G-Spot but don't know what to look for to find out its current format. There is nothing in the Audio box on the left side. Can I just change audio formats back and forth and have it still stay in synch with the video portion?
You also say:Locate a portion of the audio that would be silent.... Is this just to set a base noise level? The hum I would like to remove is on the entire DVD not in just small areas - does this make any difference? Thanks for any and all help.
Graphics Guy

[ROF]

What is causing the humming on your recordings? The camera workings?

Great Program Edmund Blackadder!

[gadgetguy]

You also say:Locate a portion of the audio that would be silent.... Is this just to set a base noise level? The hum I would like to remove is on the entire DVD not in just small areas - does this make any difference? Thanks for any and all help.
Graphics Guy

Exactly right. You're trying to get a clean sample of the hum so Cool Edit can identify and remove it without affecting the rest of the audio.

Actually you got stuck at the first step. You need to extract the audio from the DVD and convert it to a .wav file for cool edit to work with. As long as you don't change the length of the audio file by removing chunks or altering the tempo, it should resynch with the video with no problems. I can't help with the extraction process at the moment. It's not something I do very often so it will take me a while to be able to tell you how to do it. Perhaps someone else can help with that quicker.

[Graphics Guy]

Hi ROF,

"What is causing the humming on your recordings? The camera workings?"

I don't have the slightest idea where the hum is coming from. I received a DVD from a friend and while the video is great, there is a hum on the whole audio track. To insure that it is on the DVD and not my playback equipment I have tried this DVD in 3 different stand-alone DVD players as well as the one in my computer and the hum is audible on all of them. There is clear and distinct audio on the disc along with the hum. It sounds similar to the old 60 cycle hum we used to get on analog copies.
Graphics Guy

[Graphics Guy]

Hi Gagetguy,

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this forum but I have been out of town. I do appreciate all of the help and suggestions you have given me. Thank you!

I still have not figured out the easiest/quickest/cheapest way to convert my DVD audio into a WAV form so I can try your Audacity suggestion. I went to the VideoHelp.com tutorials section and one of the suggestions was to use VirtualDubMod. Have you had any experience with this program and is it one that you would suggest for a complete newbie to tackle? If not, do you have any more help or suggestions you can give me to solve my problem? Respectfully,
Graphics Guy

[gadgetguy]

I don't use VirtualDubMod, but I do use VirtualDub and VirtualDub-Mpeg2. I'm not sure which tutorial you're referring to, but it will probably work using VDubMpeg2.

Edit: Using VdubMod is OK too. The main reason I don't use Mod is because it has not been updated to keep up with the base program, VirtualDub.

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

@ Gadgetguy: which one of the two freeware has the BEST Noise Filters ... Audacity or CoolEdit96?

Thanks,
G!

[gadgetguy]

I haven't noticed that one is any better than the other. The key in either one is to get a good sample of the "noise" without anything else. Generally, if I'm having trouble removing noise in one, I'll have the same trouble in the other (but I still try both).

[gonwk]

Thanks Gadget!
G!

[Graphics Guy]

Hi To All,

I was the one that posted the original question on this forum and did not realize that it was still active.

Thanks to all that tried to help me solve my problem but I finally realized that as a complete newbie what I wanted to do was far above my level of expertise and understanding so the project fell by the wayside.

Respectfully,

Graphics Guy

[grannyGeek]

In case anyone might find this useful, a suggestion for a fairly easy-to-use payware
I love Audacity for most of my simple audio editing, but couldn't get the results I wanted for noise-removal.

Now I use Magix Audio Cleaning Lab to clean hiss and hum from vhs capture audio. It is also pretty good for pops and crackle.

about $30 for download version, $40 on CD.

It's quite easy to use and has a lot of noise-removal pre-sets you can tweak.
You can download a demo, the demo won't let you save or burn a file, but you can get a good idea of what it does.

http://site.magix.net/english-us/home/music/audio-cleaning-lab-11/
< I hope this doesn't classify as spam, I really do like this product and think it's worth the money >

[Graphics Guy]

Hi granny,

Thank you for taking the time to help me with my problem.

I already have Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 2004 on my computer but never considered that it could be used in this situation. Thank you for suggesting it.

My biggest problem is I am a complete newbie and the video is now on a DVD and what I don't understand is how do I convert or remove the audio from the DVD in a format to even use the program and then put everything back together again so it would play normally and in synch. Of course I was looking for a free or low cost program that would fit my needs. I was also hoping that there was a tutorial somewhere that would simplify this procedure for someone just starting out in video.

Respectfully,

Graphics Guy