Removing Hiss

Hanna

Hi! I just started using wavepad, and need some help!!! I'm working on an audio file (a lecturer is speaking) that has a constant hiss in the background. How do I remove it without making the audio sound wierd.

Also, I am listening to an hour long lecture that requires a lot of cutting. What format is the best way to save it in, while I am doing all of my editing. Please be specific about the HZ and bit.... Does each editing action reduce the quality of the audio file? Does each time I press save after a specific cut does it reduce the quality of the audio file?

Finally, I would like to eventually post these short audio files on a website. How should I compress it so that it will be easy to listen to, without a noticeable change in quality. Please be specific about the HZ and bit stuff.....

Thank you!!!!

[deleted]

WavePad has some noise removal features, try some of them and see if you get the results you are after. It attempts to remove the noise without degrading the other audio, but please remember that this is not an exact science, and some degradation will always occur.

While working with audio it is best to save it as 16bit 44.1kHz PCM WAV files (uncompressed audio). Everytime you re-encode the audio you will get a loss in quality, but each editing action would not (if you save it as uncompressed audio).

For posting on a website save the file as an mp3. The bitrate to use will depend on the quality you want vs. size, so simply try a few and see which ones suit your situation best. As it is simply voice, you could save it as a 64kbps mono file with minimal quality loss.

Hanna

Thank you for your helpful response. I was just wondering if you could be more specific about the noise reduction features. Which one is best to use - and how to use it.

[deleted]

There's only a few, try them all and see which ones work the best. It all really depends on your audio, and different filters will work better under different circumstances. The filters themselves are pretty straight forward, if you have any issues about one specifically then see the help file. If you have read that and still have issues then we'll try and work out what's wrong. These filters will try and do their best, but they usually can't remove 100% of the noise (no one can).

Hanna

I tried using the spectral subtraction method for noise reduction. (What does it mean that it is the slower but more accurate method? That it takes longer to apply???) And multiband gating as well. The problem is that there is a baby crying in the background that is crying as loud as the speaker is talking – is there any way to remove that sound? It didn’t work completely with either of these methods.

Thanks again!!

[deleted]

Crying babies - probably not. They would be close to the same frequency as the speaker so their waveforms would be highly interconnected and removing one of them would be extremely difficult without substantially affecting the quality of the other.

Hanna

OK! I was making myself crazy with that crying baby!!! What does it mean that the spectral subtraction method is slower but more accurate? Also, are there any other methods of noise reduction to try aside from the two I mentioned previously?

[deleted]

It means the spectral subtraction method takes longer to process, but the result is usually better than the multi band noise gating method. These are the only two direct methods of noise removal offered in WavePad. If you do some analysis on the file and work out what frequency the baby is crying at, you may be able to use the equaliser to create a band stop (or notch) filter. There should be some tutorials on this around the net somewhere.

wtaylorbasil

Hanna wrote:

OK! I was making myself crazy with that crying baby!!! What does it mean that the spectral subtraction method is slower but more accurate? Also, are there any other methods of noise reduction to try aside from the two I mentioned previously?

Hi everyone,

I just joined. For years I have asked myself how I could identify the Low Frequency note at around 3Min 15sec into the track "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. I thiught I could use WavePad and bought it to analyse that note but I am foxed. Can anyone please help me how to do it.

Regards

William

Robbie_Elder

wtaylorbasil wrote:

Hi everyone,

I just joined. For years I have asked myself how I could identify the Low Frequency note at around 3Min 15sec into the track "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. I thiught I could use WavePad and bought it to analyse that note but I am foxed. Can anyone please help me how to do it.

Regards

William

A frequency analysis of that spot in the song will provide you with some potential useful information. Have you tried using Twelve Keys? it tracks bass notes pretty well and you can cross reference if its correct by using the synth keyboard built into it

Mick_Berg

nchto wrote:

It means the spectral subtraction method takes longer to process, but the result is usually better than the multi band noise gating method. These are the only two direct methods of noise removal offered in WavePad. If you do some analysis on the file and work out what frequency the baby is crying at, you may be able to use the equaliser to create a band stop (or notch) filter. There should be some tutorials on this around the net somewhere.

For the hiss, the spectral subtraction method will be the most effective, as long as you have a bit of the hiss on its own that you can use as the noise sample. But you may hear some "wobbling" in the original speech. I don't think a filter will help with the baby crying. Crying is not at any one frequency, it is broadband. I think you may be out of luck with that.

Mick Berg.

kennywally

Hanna wrote:

OK! I was making myself crazy with that crying baby!!! What does it mean that the spectral subtraction method is slower but more accurate? Also, are there any other methods of noise reduction to try aside from the two I mentioned previously?

I never really had much luck with wavepad noise reduction.

About the only thing I can suggest would be to highlight the sections where it's just the baby crying then choose reduce volume by 99%

I don't think there is anyway to completely separate the baby from the speaker.

I use magix for other noise reduction/enhancements

Wavepad, I usually edit out advertisements and use the auto gain and compression that do a pretty decent job

I don't think there is a software that will do it all for any one person.

setho

so... what youre tellin me is i just bought a $50 pos software that i can pretty much only take out sections of where there is no 'voice' and add a silence????

well,... can i get a refund!!! this sucks!

setho

kennywally wrote:

I never really had much luck with wavepad noise reduction.

About the only thing I can suggest would be to highlight the sections where it's just the baby crying then choose reduce volume by 99%

I don't think there is anyway to completely separate the baby from the speaker.

I use magix for other noise reduction/enhancements

Wavepad, I usually edit out advertisements and use the auto gain and compression that do a pretty decent job

I don't think there is a software that will do it all for any one person.

so can you tell me what the heck this 'master edition' garbage IS good for !!! should i just get (m-audio) pro tools and not even deal with this JUNK

hockey

kennywally wrote:

I never really had much luck with wavepad noise reduction.

About the only thing I can suggest would be to highlight the sections where it's just the baby crying then choose reduce volume by 99%

I don't think there is anyway to completely separate the baby from the speaker.

I use magix for other noise reduction/enhancements

Wavepad, I usually edit out advertisements and use the auto gain and compression that do a pretty decent job

I don't think there is a software that will do it all for any one person.

Grateful if Mr. Kennywally would enlighten the little poor novice like me what is Magix ... I am facing the same problem of reducing some unwanted background noise from my video taken ... Thanks ...

kennywally

hockey wrote:

Grateful if Mr. Kennywally would enlighten the little poor novice like me what is Magix ... I am facing the same problem of reducing some unwanted background noise from my video taken ... Thanks ...

Just do a search, it'll popup

they make several diff kinds of audio software but only one that you would use.

I know some engineers use some sophisticated equip but we're talking moocho dinero

Probably the fbi and cia have stuff like that but it's not store bought equip for the most part.

Recording with a mic outside is most challenging , and why most folks use a foam cover

to at least kill the wind noise, but then other factors unexpectedly come into play just

when you really don't want anything else there.

I would try the equalizer on magix one band at a time til you feel it out.