One of the best ways to improve your home videos whether they are of family events, outings, or even videos you are making for online consumption is in the area of audio.
There is an old saying that the most important part of video is audio and in this case you can make your videos more watchable by making them more… listenable! (OK! I know that’s not really a word!)
Quite often when you are looking at other peoples videos you may have noticed that although the video itself seemed quite OK, there was something that seemed to be annoying about it or some way that it was failing to hold your attention.
More often than not it is actually the audio quality that is having that effect.
On this page I have laid out a simple procedure anyone can follow to quickly and efficiently clean up a narration or voiceover track.
The techniques apply to any voice recording you have done regardless of the source but before that always remember when you are recording a voice to set your device at the highest possible quality.
Some devices don’t offer this but many do, so take the time to go into the settings of whatever you are using to make sure you are getting the best audio quality you can.
Once you have your recording we are going to use a free audio editing software program to polish the sound file you have, so we need to get that file isolated and into a format suitable for editing.
If you have recorded a voice track on your computer this is simple because you will already have a single audio file and most likely it will be in the .wav format that we need.
If you have used some other kind of system and do not have a .wav file then you can get a free audio converter here that will do the job, or just Google for one.
The point is that we need to get the file into the .wav format to get the best results.
Because we are going to edit the file and are also going to be adding that file back to a video project it is very important to stick to the .wav format.
If you are dealing with a voice track from one of your existing videos simply load the video into your video editing software then go to the output – sharing – distribute part of the program and choose to output the file as a .wav audio file.
One you have the sound file you will need another free software program called Audacity which you can download for free here: Download Audacity.
Just choose the version suitable for your system and install.
Now that we have Audacity installed, open the program and load your audio file by selecting “File” then “Open” and navigating to where you put the audio file.
Audacity will give you the option of either directly editing the original file (faster) or making a copy of the file and editing the copy (safer).
My choice in this is to manually make a copy before I even start and place it in a separate folder.
That way I always have the original to go back to if I mess up and I am not getting Audacity to do anything extra that could lead to problems.
One more point to note before we get into the procedure is that Audacity is an incredible sound editing platform.
Although this simple guide will get your voice tracks up to speed it in no way taps into the vast capabilities of the program.
It would be worth anyones time to delve further into learning how to effectively use Audacity for all parts of your video soundtracks.
Cleaning Up Your Voice Track
Once you have chosen the method of editing, the file will load into the program and be displayed as a waveform representing the sounds within the file.
Noise Removal
Before we start we need to find a small section of the voice track that has no vocals recorded on it.
We will use this section of the track to give Audacity a sample of the noise we want to remove.
In the example track I have used the mouse to select a portion of the file but very often there will be a silent “lead in” at the front of the audio file you could also use.
Now select Effect then Noise Reduction and a dialogue box will open.
In older versions of Audacity this was named Noise Removal as shown in the image below but it is basically the same function.
Click on Get Noise Profile and Audacity will capture and analyze the small sample you selected in the previous step.
The dialogue box will disappear and you will be back at the waveform view of your file.
Click anywhere on the waveform then either hit ctrl + A or use Edit / Select All to make sure the entire file is selected.
Now go back and select Effect, Noise Reduction again and the same dialogue box will open only this time, check the bottom of the box to see that (1.) Remove Noise is checked then hit OK.
Although there are lots of ways to adjust and fine tune this module remember, we are going for a quick and dirty fix here!
It will immediately run and you will notice that the areas where there were no vocals before have now become much thinner indicating the reduction in noise.
Equalization
Now that an acceptable level of noise has been removed you will most likely find that the overall sound of the file has changed slightly.
It probably has a “thinner” or more shallow sound to it.
This is because the noise removal also removes some other aspects of the file so we need to compensate for that with equalization.
First of all make sure the entire audio clip is selected by using ctrl + A or by using the Select All function under the Edit tab.
Go to Effect then select Equalization.
A new dialogue box will open shown below.
Make sure that Draw Curves is selected and then from the drop down box select EMI 78 as the profile you want to apply.
Bear in mind that some current copies of Audacity for some reason don’t have this equalization preset.
Perfectly acceptable alternatives that I have used are: Acoustic, Decca FFRR 78 and a few of the others.
You can use the preview button to listen to the change it will make so have a play with a few of them until you find one you like.
You can of course manually adjust the Eq by yourself but that kind of defeats the purpose of a “quick and dirt” fix!
Finally select OK once you have the setting you want and Audacity will apply the changes.
What you may now notice is that the small areas where you previously removed noise have now kind of fattened up a little because of the Eq changes.
Take a listen to the final product and if it is ok then… OK!
If the Eq has raised the noise level to a noticeable degree then re-do the noise removal step once more for final clean and you should be done.
hi, I’m trying to amplify a recording, it was recording when I was sleeping alone in my house and I swear that there is a voice of a man, can understand what he says, really don’t know how to do it, please tell me I’m not going crazy!!!
You are not going crazy!… feel better?
If you mean can you isolate and increase the volume of something that was recorded the answer is pretty much no.
Digital recordings don’t record things separately as you hear them. They just record sound waves.
The thing that isolates different parts is actually your brain and software has no brains!
Sorry.
Guys i need help i want to remove the main speakers voice so i only have applause and crowd reaction only.i will really appreciate some help.
thank you in advance
Hi Ben,
What you are asking seems on the surface to be quite simple right?
That’s because you, (a human) can hear the voice as being separate from the other sound in the audio file.
It is your brain that is processing all the sound and making sense of it.
Software doesn’t come with a brain unfortunately so all you can do is try to erase the specific audio frequencies that the voice part is creating.
Unfortunately other parts of the file are also using those same frequencies so you really can’t just isolate the voice and remove it.
There are some things you can do to attempt this but it is beyond what this tutorial is aiming at.
My advice would be to go to the Audacity forum and post your question there.
Those guys will likely have at least some established strategies to try to get this done.
This is an awesome tutorial specially for n00bs like me who have always wanted to edit audio files but never got into the nitty gritty. Very satisfying thanks Lance Carr @dvdrepairtips.
Not to criticise but there were a few curve balls in the post due to the fact that the interface and commands of audacity have been updated since this post was written or last updated.
The first one is that as of today (Jan 2017) the option of “noise removal” is not there in the effects menu. Do not worry though. Use the “Noise reduction” option and follow the steps – you will be fine.
These are my two cents and I hope these comments help future user and I might have contributed to the longevity of the post. The tutorial is pretty easy to follow therefore it deserves all the help it needs!
I found your tutorial very helpful and far easier to understand than others I have tried, so thank you for making it easy!
I have just bought a new laptop (HP Spectre 360 Pro) and would like to use it to record hypnotherapy sessions with clients.
Previously I was using a Philips voice recorder (as the laptop was too much of a brick to carry with me)and then transferring to Audacity to clean up.
It would be more efficient to record direct onto the HP using Audacity.
I am almost as untechy as one gets and am not sure if I can use any old plug-in microphone – I have a Philips room microphone and a little individual stereo affair.
Would it be worthwhile my upgrading to a better microphone?
I have got to be as time efficient as possible as I can’t charge for my time spent fiddling with sound quality; however, I know how irritating and self-defeating a poor quality recording is for hypnosis and I would like to maximise the efficacy of the therapy. Any tips would be gratefully received!
Hi Jenny,
Here’s my two cents worth on this.
You already have two microphones you can plug into the laptop and use with Audacity.
Why not practice setting up and recording with each one so the setup process becomes smooth and professional.
At the same time make sure you actually use each one to record in a scenario that as closely as possible recreates a real session.
Then check the results of each. If they are both bad then sure, a new microphone may be on the cards but at least check out the ones you have before forking out your hard earned dollars!
I spent the afternoon playing, and have concluded that either microphone is good enough, and recording direct to Audacity cuts out a whole process. Now I want to work out how to add to the voice recordings, soft music, crikets, trickling water (No!) or birdsong, sometimes requested by clients … do you have a tutorial on it by any chance?!
Hi Jenny,
Glad you are getting it sorted out.
I don’t have any tutorial on using audacity to add background music or anything like that but I am sure there are many out there!
Just Google “add background music in audacity.”
Bear in mind adding music is that same as adding any other track.
Here’s a video to get you started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6ev7O8ouTY
Many thanks!
Apparently this comment is too short, and I wish to thank you!
So to ensure I can, I will add a random comment that I have found some interesting music using Tibetan bowls which is purchased on a one-off license fee, and which is far more relaxing than some of the electronic “relaxation” music available (which can be highly irritating).
There are some samples to listen to – you might enjoy ten minutes with your eyes shut! I’m sure I’ll now be able to work out how to add the tracks to the voice track.
https://www.enlightenedaudio.com/deep-beneath-dreaming
Kind regards
Jenny
You are welcome Jenny, sorry about the inconvenience of having to write more than just a simple thank-you!
Unfortunately it is a spammy world we live in so minimum message length helps me weed it out.
Hello Lance, I am new to working with audio and I need help with a special family project. I found an old record that is the size of a 45 but plays at a speed of around 78 of my parents and my older sister. The record is very scratchy sounding and hard to understand what they say. What format do I need to get it to in order to use audacity to hopefully remove the scratches from it so we can understand better what they are saying? Your help would be appreciated.
P.S. The record was made in 1942! Apparently some kind of do it yourself thing they had back then. I want it for our family.
Hi Lora,
Ok so that sounds pretty interesting!
If it is from 1942 then it was well before the time of the 45 or the 33 long plang discs so 78rpm sound about right.
This is not really anything I know too much about but here some things you need to bear in mind.
The original recording method would have been “direct to disc.” That means you speak into a microphone connected to a machine that was actually cutting (engraving) the tracks on to the disc in real time.
At that time because this was awesomely new fangled technology very often there were places you could go to record stuff and they gave you the disc.
This is probably what you have.
The poor quality of the recording comes down to two things.
First the actual recording technique which wasn’t designed to give amazing sound quality in the first place.
Everyone was just amazed to hear their voices recorded and played back on the spot!
The second will be degradation of the disc itself. The disc is possibly a shellac record and over time will have degraded physically and probably built up some dirt as well.
**wARNING** do Not ATTEMPT TO CLEAN IT IN ANY WAY UNTIL YOU HAVE WORKED OUT WHAT IT IS MADE OF!
To get the recording on to a computer is pretty straightforward and a Google search will show you lots of resources on that.
As far as using Audacity goes I would strongly suggest going to their forum and posting there as it may take a bit of expertise to deal with it.
First of all go to this site and ask someone what it is exactly that you have and go from there:
78rpm Community
Will this method work even for audio recorded in woods?
As part of a student project, we had to film a little something in a forest. Unfortunately, we had no professional equipment, all we had were a couple of cameras. I was wondering if there was a way to isolate the voices from the recorded audio and make it sound more natural?
Hi there Niharika!
This method will work for removing noise that is reasonable consistent through the recording or parts of the recording.
In you case you probably have a lot of ambient noise you can get rid of, then you can use the Equalizer settings to try to raise the volume of the voices.
It may take a lot of fiddling with settings and playing around to get it sounding OK.
This is beyond last minute request for help, I’m going to try anyway.
Very close friends funeral is tomorrow and his best friend could not make it so I recorded the eulogy he wrote over my cell phone (via speakerphone) onto a Sony voice recorder. I have been altering the audio for hours and I just cant get it to sound right. The eulogy needs to be played through the voice recorder or laptop for an external speaker to be attached.
Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thank you for any advice
Hi Allison,
Sorry to hear about the circumstances.
Given the description of how you got the original recording I am afraid there is going to be very little you can do to improve it.
Once you have taken a sample of a point in the tape where there is no speaking and have used that sample to remove any noise as described above, that’s about it.
That’s about as far as you can go for cleaning the sound up.
From that point on all you can do is play around with the filters and things I describe to maybe get it a little better but unfortunately the rule is: Garbage in = garbage out!
Hai same problem i am facing i wanted to know wat u have did for this pl let me know its urgent its going to ruin my life
i want that audio to be audible
Hi Chintu,
The only information or technique I have is already on the page above.
Hllo..i just want to know that hw can clean the scrachy sound from a recorded audio to listen thhe vocal voice plz guide me its very important
Hi Sunny,
Just follow the instructions on this page for removing unwanted sound.
I have some recorded mp3 call logs that need cleaned up. Do you know anyone I can send these to and pay to get them cleaned up. not sure if they are compressed or what. sound like chipmunks and a little scratchy. Feel free to email me.
Hi Jason,
Yes those files are compressed, that’s what MP3 is, compressed audio files.
The article above is just a simple little “how to” for amateur editors so I am not going to pretend I am particularly “in the know” in the world of audio.
I can only suggest doing a Google search for audio services in your area to see if there is someone that does this.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
Hello. sorry for disturbing but can you please edit the sing for me? i want to remove the vocal and make the sound track clearer but it seems I cant do it after 100 times I tried. The music isnt from official audio. the music is from a video that people clean it. pls help
Hi Dini,
Unfortunately you cannot just separate out the vocals from an already recorded track.
The vocals and the background to you sound separate but as far as software goes they are all just one thing.
The only application of this tutorial is to remove low level background noise that is consistent throughout the recording and even then it still changes the overall sound of the track.
This is because whatever you remove will also be present in other elements of the audio.
Sorry!
Lance
Hi Lance advice please the subject excellent topic excellent, The audio ??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKP4gnL-9Rk
Is there anyway to enhance this computer generated voice?
I think there are a few in the series.
Regards
Dave
Hi Dave,
Hmmm… you see the problem there is that it is a computer generated voice that is just piecing together prerecorded words.
As a wise live sound technician told me once, “You can’t polish a turd!”
The only thing I can suggest is to just play around with various filters to see if you can get it sounding better to the ear.
The other thing you may want to do is go to the Audacity forum and ask there.
Hello, i was wondering if this could be used to just change the sound of the speaker altogether. I have to watch these videos about 4 hours worth of instructions. The person who did the videos, his language is not English first and it sounds like he is eating or licking his lips the entire time. I have a hearing thing where certain noises and sounds give me anxiety. I know sounds ridiculous. But I really can’t help it. So if you could please let me know if i could change it at all it would be a great help.
Hi Rachel,
Most simple adjustments to a sound file especially when correcting are aimed at changing something that is present all the time throughout the file.
When you have a file that has intermittent pops and squeaks and strange speaking habits the only way to deal with them is by going through the file step by step and adjusting them individually.
What you might want to do is use Audacity to select and entire track and play around with some of the filters to see if you can at least change the overall characteristics of the speaker’s voice to make it more listenable.
This is awesome! Just followed the instructions and it worked like magic on a sermon audio I’m trying to clean up. Thanks a bunch.
Glad it helped!
Hi Lance!
Thank you, this was very helpful. We are still having some problems though. My girlfriend a singer and her voice keeps coming out with a grainy quality. We have a nice compound mic, but her vocal quality makes it seem like we used a poor quality mic. We played with the gain, but it only helps a little bit. Do you know what else we could do on Audacity to improve the quality and clarity of her voice? Make it sound a little closer to an album quality rather than a simple mic/voice recorder quality?
Thanks!
Hi Josh,
OK, advice from me on recording and processing audio is like the blind leading the blind here!
However let’s not let that get in the way!
First suggestion, embrace the uniqueness of your girlfriend’s voice. Don’t try to process it into something it is not.
Two: Try to record her using different (lower) levels and see what the results are.
Three: Run away from this place as fast as you can because I am clueless on this subject!
Try over on the Audacity forum to see if you can get any suggestions there from people who most likely actually know what they are talking about!
Hi Lance, I have a recorded song of my girlfriend who is not a pro singer, so there’s a lot of pitch drops and at times the tune is not perfect. Can I modify this imperfect piece into a perfect one, by anyhow digitally fine tuning or anything else? If yes, then how, Please help.
Hi Arka,
Unfortunately there is not much you can do unless you want to invest in a top end audio program like Pro-Tool which has an autotune feature.
The concept is simple but hard to do!
To raise or lower the pitch of a sound you can just speed up or slow down that particular note by isolating it.
The problem is that now that note is sounding for a longer or shorter amount of time so the whole audio file starts to go out of sync.
Auto Tune automatically compensates for this incredibly complex procedure… hence the incredibly expensive price tag!
Sorry, maybe you should get you girlfriend to practice… but be very careful about how you approach that subject!
Hi, I have a recorded file and i would appreciate your help in how will enhance the voices in the recorded file. I can only hear the hissing sound and short high pitch when there there laughter or loud voice.
Thanks.
Hi Renato,
Unfortunately the problem you have was caused at the recording point by HOW it was recorded.
Because those hissing and high pitch noises only occur when the voice occurs it means that when the track was recorded the device or system being used was either set up wrong or was faulty.
Sort of like if you are recording your voice and suddenly scream into the microphone, you get all sorts of strange noises happening.
This can’t be fixed in Audacity.
Hi I have an audio recording and the voices in are very faint and lots of hissing noise can be heard. Can the voices be cleanly extracted?
Hi Dave,
The short answer is no.
You will probably find that if you take a sample of the hissing noise and remove it you lose more of the voices anyway.
Depending on how bad the problem is even a professional studio will still have trouble doing it and at great expense as well!
When you listen to sound what you are not really aware of is the fact that your brain is analyzing and sorting that sound in real time so you can identify hissing noises and voices.
The reality is that outside of that ear-brain arrangement the file itself is just one sound so removing one part will always remove another part.
I have an episode of the big bang theory but it has translating voice on top that prevents me from hearing the real voices of everyone else but I can still hear the real voices in the background. how do I remove the translating voice and only be left with the normal voice.
Hi Delan,
Unless the voices are recorded on separate track they are now “one” audio file and cannot be separated nor can you “adjust” one and leave the other untouched.
does this work if you have a video with the normal voice in the background and then the translating voice on top
No, sorry.
Hi there, I don’t have EMI 78 as an option. I’m working on a MacBook.
Many thanks
Hi Rosie,
Yes I have had this question before.
All the filters within Audacity are written and provided to the Audacity team for free by interested geeks.
It seems that the EMI 78 filter only comes with the Windows version so that’s probably why you are not seeing it.
The only reason I included that filter is because in keeping with a quick, “down and dirty” enhancement it works well in most cases.
All I can suggest is that you go through some of the filters that are available and try them.
Is it possible to change the voice in movies where one voice can look a little bit older.In which the movie is already recorded without changing other voice.Please help… If able so will there be any late or early in the lips and the voice… I’ll be very grateful
Hi Benjamin,
What you are describing is all but impossible at the consumer end of the market.
In movies or high end productions very often the sound track you hear is a combination of individually recorded sound tracks mixed together. These can be manipulated by going back to the original (and individually recroded) tracks.
In the case of editing or adjusting a finished track it is almost impossible to make any change to one aspect of that traack without dramatically changing other parts as well… and usually for the worse.
Hi Lance how do you reinsert the audio track back into the video?
Hi James,
After you have exported the file you open it in Audacity, make the changes and save. (Remember where!)
Then re-open your video editor and import the changed file to your timeline as an audio track.
Don’t foregt to mute the video file where you got the audio from in the first place otherwise they will both play!
You haven’t made any kind of change that would alter the length of the audio track so it should sync perfectly with the video.
Hi Lance thanks for the help, much appreciated.
hey can anybody tell me how i can get noise in background you can hear it but just trying to figure out how i can hear it better also the fans going off so it there anyway to lower that as well if you can do it for me i can send the audio if you could please email me and let me know that would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Brandon,
First up I have editied your comment and removed your email address.
Never write your email address in a comment like that because automated software called bots are constantly trawling the internet for email addresses exposed like that. Once they capture the address you then get spammed endlessly.
As far as your request goes it is a little hard to work out exactly what it is you want. Can you re-state the problem a little more clearly? Possibly use a few commas and full stops as well!
Hello, I have file with two people speaking with music playing in the background. I was wondering if it were possible to eliminate the background music from the track.
Hi Clarence,
The problem here is that by removing certain frequencies (the music) you will invariably be removing frequencies shared by both the background AND the voices.
You can’t tell the software to remove frequency “A” if it is in music but not if it is coming from a voice.
This is definitely a “pro” level kind of activity.
You could try going on to the Audacity forum for some more specialized help.
You could also check this video out but bear in mind it only applies to a particular scenario.
Separate Vocals
Thanks for sharing this information! It’s very helpful..
hi,
i have an audio file….about 50 years back around 1972…….. there is noise + voice of speaker is also not clear …… how to fix ?
i am naive user of audacity.
thanks
Hi Jawwad,
Unfortunately cleaning up something like that is very complicated and difficult to do.
It is a specialized action and to be honest I am not that experienced in the field of specialized audio.
Try the Audacity forum and maybe someone there can help.
Hello Lance,
Thanks for the great tutorial. I edit my own radio show that I download from the stations archives. It’s hours of work because I only know a few things. This should really help.
My question is, can I separate the host from the guest. Say, I’m too loud. Can I separate myself all at once and lower my volume. Right now I do it piecemeal and it take forever.
Thanks,
Patricia
Hi Patricia,
The only hope you have of achieving that is if the host and the guest have been recorded on separate tracks originally.
I am guessing they weren’t!
So sadly I think you are doomed to sitting there endlessly twiddling the volume settings!
Sorry!
Lance
Thanks, it worked like magic! Although I don’t know what the EMI 78 does exactly.
In my copy of Audacity(os x) there is no “remove” and “isolate” options. There is “Reduce” and “Residue” and the Effect is called “Noise Reduction” not “Noise Removal”
Hi MK,
I guess the names of entries may be a little different on the Mac version.
The EMI 78 filter is basically a filter I use to enhance the sound of the voice a little. It kind of gives it that “radio announcer” feel.
It’s not essential and there are a bunch of other settings you can play around with to give your voice a richer tone.
I have a voicemail that I need to use to proove my case in a lawsuit. Its very muffled though. Its saved on my smartphone.How can I make it suitable for the judge to better understand it?
Hi Jewl,
The first hting you should do is make a backup copy of the file and keep it somewhere safe if it is that important.
Only try to play around with copies… just in case!
As far as cleaning up this kind of thing goes the advice here is not really suitable becuase it is a different scenario.
I would strongly recommend you go to the Audacity forum and ask someone there with mosre experience in retoring audio fles like the one you have.
Thanks for the tips to clean up audio. But I seem to have a basic problem.
After highlighting the section of noise and I click on Effect, the drop down is greyed out so I cannot click and select noise reduction.
How do I solve this problem?
Hi Sunil,
I just tried to repeat the problem you are having and yes, I did manage to get the same thing happening but I could not work out what caused it!
So the good news is that you are not crazy!
To get around it I just closed the program, re-opened it, loaded the file I wanted to work on and then zoomed in enough to find a spot where the noise sample could be taken.
I then selected that little section, went to Effects, Noise Removal and selected Get Noise Sample.
I then clicked somewhere else on the timeline and then hit ctrl+A to select the whole file.
Then went to Effects, Noise Removal and applied the change successfully.
Not really sure what causes that glitch.
Is the problem that you are not stopping the audio, just pausing it? if you just pause it, it doesn’t let you make changes. I don’t know if this is your problem or not, but i hope you get it figured out.
Yes Caleb thank-you!
You are absolutely correct, if you only pause the audio clip the Effect Menu is not available.
Thank you for your honesty.
I will continue my search.
I know it can be done, because the Audio engineer was able to do it in a flash.
The static is easily heard but not repeated at a regular timing.
Thank you again
Digitizing my fathers European slide travelogues from the 50’s. He had created 3 distinct travelogues: Italy, middle Europe (Austria, Germany & Paris) and an extended presentation of Holland, where we lived from 1956-1959.
Real old school with 35 mm slides that ran separate from the audio component. He wrote and narrated script and recorded relevant music from 33 1/3 records onto cassettes, during the narration process.
He did an amazing job without any of today’s technology. No Internet or Google for historical research. None of us would have had the patience today. I am very proud of what he accomplished.
I have gotten the slides and audio converted separately to digital and now merging in iMovie (I am an armature).
He last recorded audio in 1979, before his death.
The crackling is intermittent and I don’t know if the origin of the noise was from the voice narration or the music, or if it matters.
Will this process work for this type of intermittent noise?
I am asking because of your only using a section without voice. The total length of the audio is approximately 4 hours made up from 5 digital audio clips.
I had the other travelogues cleaned up by an Audio Engineer.
I would like to learn to do this, as I have many more similar projects and paying someone each time wood be prohibitively expensive.
Appreciate your input, before I go down this path.
Regards,
Warren
Hi Warren,
OK, first of all…WOW!
That is truly an amazing story and your father’s effort in achieving that is unbelievable.
The system I describe on this page is NOT suitable for that project in any way. It is just a quick down and dirty way of remove CONSTANT noise from a track.
I am not going to pretend to you that I have any great expertise on this subject and I think your best course of action is to make and keep safe master copies of the sound tracks then begin the process of learning how to do it.
I would suggest starting out at the Audacity forum and them any other sound/audio forums you can find.
I recently did these changes and my audio sounds a lot worse, I have done this before and it works good but in this case it didn’t; but I spent 2 hours recording the audio and now I cant undo the changes because I saved it. Is there anyway that I can restore what it sounded like before the changes?
Hi Ben,
Sorry I took so long to reply.
The chances are that if you made it worse when at other times it worked fine then you probably accidently did something you didn’t realize and there you are.
Sorry, once you have saved the changes there is no going back. Undo only applies to unsaved changes.
All I can say is that in the future apply the changes to a copy and keep another a a master.
Dear sir, I see it as a privilage to undertake this course to exploit my mind in editing.
I was concerned on how to make my voice more crisp and clear with a beat as a second audio file. thanks!
Will this remove , white noise , sounds like heavy rain in back ground ..
Hi Rebecca,
The noise removal tool in Audacity will remove that kind of noise but you may have to play around with it a little to get good results that don’t distort or change that parts you want to keep.
The key to it is being able to isolate one section of the audio file that has ONLY the white noise or sound of rain in it so you can get an accurate sample.
I have a very large audio file (voice) and need to ‘expand it’ somehow to select first 45 seconds to get the noise profile as states in instructions, my file is 3.5 hours long. How do I choose/select the first 45 seconds for the ‘test’ before selecting entire file to clean background noise?
Think I figured it out, keep zooming in until I can select portion I need to ‘get profile’ that has no voice in it. Very nice app, but not being a guru with this stuff, what options do I have for some 1-on-1 help? Have a very important audio file I need to hear voice(s) clearly and fighting this for days to clean it up enough to hear voice only. Have business with couple employees misbehaving, my attorney cleared the legal stuff first, then told me to record audio to find which one (of two) is stealing from the company.
Hi Mark,
Glad you figured out the zooming trick by yourself there!
In the case of large files that’s the way to do it.
As far as help goes I am afraid I am not an expert on audio stuff especially for what you are trying to do.
Possibly try the Audacity forum?
Hey! I have a voice recording – a phone conversation and 1 of the speaker’s voice is very unclear. I have to transcribe it but I can hardly get a half of what he says. I tried removing noise but it didn’t work. I suppose it works only for the background noise
Hi Nastasi,
Unfortunately when it comes to audio as bad as you are describing the noise removal tool in Audacity is very limited.
When you take a sample of the noise at a point where there is nothing but noise you have remember that the noise is also present in the good parts as well.
So if you remove that noise you are also removing part of the good parts at the same time.
As long as the noise isn’t too bad that is usually not too much of a problem but in your case I doubt audacity can repair it that much without losing parts you need.
I am doing some remastering of my aunts 1030s recordings and this has worked awesome, there is still a little hiss. but 150% increase
I already have Cyberlink Audio Director 4. I will be setting up to do some videos & podcasting & have been told I should use Adobe Audition or Audacity. What are your thoughts? Will Cyberlink work OK or should I change my audio software?
Thanks.
Hi Rusty,
In my experience the reason people say stuff like that is not because it is based on any actual knowledge.
It’s based on the fact that the particular software they are recommending is what THEY are using.
To be truthful they usually aren’t even recommending it, they are usually stating with absolute certainty (based on no data) that the one they are using in the ONLY one you can use!
Audio Director 4 is perfectly suited and perfectly equipped to deal with anything you may want to do for a podcast.
Good guide, just that what i’m looking for. I just downloaded Audacity but the draw curve EMI 78 does not exist in Equalization. I used RIAA instead and called the effect normalize after that.
Hi Stephan,
There are a few filters that come with Audacity you can use and anyone can play around with them to find one they like.
I wanted to keep the guide simple.
Thanks for leaving comment!
Are you able to remove people voices with this? I have school basketball games but dont want the conversations to stay. Other parents don’t need to hear everything.
HI Chavon,
Unfortunately you probably can’t do this.
When you select some constant background noise it is usually at a low level and is restricted to a reasonably small group of wavelengths.
When you remove it the sound of the overall track changes because every other sound that shares sounds of the same wavelength also get removed.
However the change this causes is not usually so bad that it is noticeable.
The sounds of voices are not consistent even sounds that are continuous.
By the time you sample each one and remove them you would probably removed all other sounds on the track as well!
Lance, I have a few questions regarding Audacity that you might be able to help me with. Would you mind contacting me via FB? My address is https://www.facebook.com/lisa.sparks.967 I would really appreciate any answers you might be able to give me!!
Hi Lisa, I sent you a PM on FaceBook but no reply!
I am not really surprised because FB messages from people you are not actually connected to tend to get buried.
You can contact me directly on this comments thread or go to the Contact page and send me an email.
I cant find EMI78 in my audacity!
It’s not a big deal really. Just choose another one and listen to it is test mode until you find one you like.
If you don’t have EMI 78 Settings already available in your audacity, Check out this instructions: http://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap050-how-to-improve-your-voice-from-a-cheap-microphone-with-audacity/
Thanks Sam!
Works great!
Thank you… I wasn’t expecting to be able to be able to produce something like this myself…
You are very helpful. Do you have a company I can send recordings to be improved. I am close but need to make sure I am hearing what I think I am.
thanks,
Tom
You are very helpful. Do you help people out for a fee to really enhance recordings?
thanks,
Tom
How do I put the audit file to the video file once it is cleaned up?
That would depend on what video editing software you are using, generally it is simply a matter of adding the final video file into the software’s audio library then dragging it on to the timeline of the editor.