Dave S wrote:
It never fails to amaze how some people have got so much time to be so unhelpful and rude. I will have a go at answering the original posters question.
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Why didn't you try to answer the poster's question earlier? Didn't you have the time?
You seem to be disturbed that I have explained the basic concept of "noise reduction" to one who clearly does not understand it and who provided a downright wrong answer to a novice user, whom I do not expect to have a grasp of this sophisticated topic.
There were two points that I addressed in my "unhelpful and rude" (using your words) post. First, I explained the basic technical concept of "noise reduction" as it is used in WavePad, and is clearly understood neither by the original poster nor by the novice user who, in good faith, offered up what she(?) believed to be a credible answer. However, this answer was not credible; in fact, it was just plain wrong. By the very nature of this forum and how it is being administered, what is "unhelpful" is to gloss over, or brush under the rug as it were, a wrong answer that is provided to an innocent, unsophisticated poster from one upon whom that poster has good reason to expect should be providing knowledgeable information. So, if my exposing this answer as "misguided" at best is "unhelpful," then so be it.
And yes, I do have the time and the inclination to provide correct and insightful answers (often, as in this case, after waiting for a long time for someone else to provide this correct information). Users in this forum should be grateful that someone around here has the time to devote to this effort. I should point out that it takes only a fraction of a second, as it were, to toss out a wrong answer and walk away from it. Perhaps no one will notice....
The second point is that I explained, in relatively simple language, the basic technical concept which underlies WavePad's use of the "Fast Fourier Transform" (although I did not mention this) in the spectral subtraction noise reduction process, which the original poster had clearly used successfully to reduce hiss in completed recordings. Therefore, when this individual asked if it was possible to reduce noise during recording, instead of going through this successful process in a completed recording, it was only natural that he was referring to the use of the same type of noise reduction (spectral subtraction). It is logical to assume that he was not referring methods of microphoning to reduce outside "noise" from extraneous audio sources.
In other words, the response to the poster's question only managed to obfuscate the issue, since it did not address the nature of the noise reduction that he was concerned about: "Can I reduce hiss (which I have used successfully on a completed recording) during the recording process?" And yes, since it apparently takes a lot of repeating, it takes time to point out these things. A user who does not have the time to devote to a subject like this is of course free to move on to the next topic. The gooroo's mission here is clarity, which necessarily cannot always be achieved without brusqueness and briskness--whatever you wish to call it.
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1. Wavepad or any other programme will not be able to apply noise reduction whilst it is actually recording. That is a limitation of the recording process and also because the Wavepads noise reduction requires a lot of slow processing.
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I got there before you did! I took the time to do it--you did not.
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2. The best thing is to try to stop noise getting into the recording in the first place.
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As I explained above, you are confusing apples with oranges, as it were--microphoning versus noise reduction by spectral subtraction.
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That is always better than trying to clean up the mess afterwards. So NCHNS's suggestions are valid.
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No they are not, since they do not address the poster's question. If we are going to discuss microphone placement, that is one thing. However, the point of this forum is to try to understand the nature of the poster's question, based upon the way in which the question was posed. Nothing in the poster's question suggested that he was referring to "noise reduction" by microphone placement and volume control during the recording process.
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Particularly taking out the 20dB boost. If you do that, you can increase the level going into the microphone (by getting closer or speaking louder if possible). This will increase the signal to noise ratio.
3. You final option is to get a better microphone/sound card combination. Or buy a device such as the Zoom Handy H2 recorder.