Noise Reduction with Audacity: Quick Sound Tutorial

If the sound for your video is a little on the noisy side, you can clean it up using the free audio editing app Audacity. Audacity comes with a noise reduction plugin that makes it quick and easy to cut back the noise so that your audience can focus on your story or message. Here’s a very quick look at how to use the noise reduction effect in Audacity.
If you’d like to improve your sound recording skills for film, please have a look at our Sound Recording for Video course over at school.learnlig...
Visit us at learnlightandso... for more updates on how to improve your lighting and sound for video. Also be sure to subscribe to get new weekly episodes!
Gear used to create this episode:
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Electrovoice RE20 (Microphone for Tutorial)
Amazon: geni.us/r9vGAP
B&H Photo: www.bhphotovide...
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Focusrite Safire Pro 24 (Microphone Preamp and Audio Interface - Plug the mic into this to record to computer)
Amazon: geni.us/Z3iwr
B&H Photo: www.bhphotovide...
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Music copyright Curtis Judd 2012
Ethics statement: Some of the links above are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, or other affiliate links.

[@LearnColorGrading]

I never knew you can do this in Audacity. Thank you for this Curtis.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Alex! I cut my first piece in Resolve 12 thanks to inspiration from you!

[@EmmxnSxvxgeonyt]

@@curtisjudd does noise reduction mute the hole audio

[@ChefBuckRecipes]

thanks...I really appreciate your style and info

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@clintfit]

Chef Buck does this work on guitar audio too?

[@ZombieLincoln666]

This is much better (and actually correct) compared to the other video tutorial I just watched - the one that has the most views. For one, your instructions are actually correct.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks

[@kalamfelsameem]

great as usual 😊... i do the same but never tried the 2 passes.... thaks for the tip..

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@davidbothof3367]

Thanks! Without your video it, it wasn't clear what Audacity was doing because "get sound profile" makes it seem like you click the button and THEN highlight the sound you want to eliminate. This video made the steps more clear!

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped!

[@shanahanstory3586]

5 years in the future, still helping people! Thanks!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@adarkerlight]

WOW, this is fantastic! I hope it works for me. I think I recorded silence in all my takes. I remember from helping out on student films eons ago that crew usually has a "place" on set that everyone retreats to so every take will have the same number of people near/away from the mic and ambient noise is always recorded before changing camera setups. Being a solo effort here, I tried to remember to do the same thing, essentially. And boy was I hoping something like this existed in Audacity. Thanks!

[@curtisjudd]

+adarkerlight You're welcome and thank you!

[@dongvienthai]

Thank you Curtis! I especially enjoy that you explain each step so I understand the "why" of each procedure. Many thumbs up!

[@curtisjudd]

+Dong Thai Thank you!

[@nananaina]

Thanks for your video, you are really clear explaining how things work, I can say that going through many videos and not getting it. Thanks again for the time you put in this. Good job!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Marcela!

[@DGworksIvan]

Man that helps a lot Just got my Rode NT usb, sound great using 3.5mm plug monitoring directly, however a lot of noise in PC. Your vid helped me getting the sound i wanted. Thanks a lot

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@shribhagawatgupta]

i watching this video in 2021 and satiesfied thank you curtis judd sir 😉

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped. Happy mixing!

[@tedfinger]

This is helpful. I've used Audacity's Noise Reduction effect, but I was not familiar with the technique of running multiple noise reduction filters using very mild settings. It appears to be a good strategy. Thank you!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Ted, glad it helped!

[@RKNCreepyZ]

Thanks! I've been thinking about using audacity when I record lately and I get a lot of background noise. This fixed it a lot!

[@curtisjudd]

+CreepyGaming AJ great!

[@KitaNashGaming]

Really appreciate your tutorials for Audacity. Super helpful! I do have a question, though. Would you recommend normalizing (or raising the audio at all) first and then doing noise reduction or the other way around? Thank you!

[@curtisjudd]

I usually normalize first, then do the noise reduction.

[@KitaNashGaming]

Okay. Thank you for getting back to me!

[@ceeebeee11]

+Curtis Judd hi I did the noise reduction first but when i highlight the full audio i cant click the normalize . what should i do?

[@curtisjudd]

+Cee Bee Hmm...What happens if you highlight just a portion of the track. Can you normalize that?

[@LeslieArnelleTV]

I am so appreciative of all that you do to help . thank you so much . it worked!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Leslie!

[@MorganLawnCareTX]

Thanks for the response. I did about 3 small passes with the noise removal before I normalized and compressed. I did hear some weird noise (faint but present) in the background after all that. There was an air conditioner blowing in the background of the interview. I'll try the way you described it below next time. Thanks so much for the info!!

[@curtisjudd]

+David Morgan you're welcome and best wishes!

[@OLDTIMEANOINTEDGOSPELMUSIC]

Thank you very much - Before I had problems figuring out the levels

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@javierpena3789]

Thanks a lot. I wached a several videos but Audacity version are diferents. Your video helped me.Thanks again.

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped!

[@SlovenianGamer]

Thank you so much i watched bunch of videos but you really set a point and stick to it from beggining to the end. Thank you sir !

[@curtisjudd]

+EsGee YT you are welcome!

[@GimmeDopamine]

Wow. Such a good tutorial dude. Thank you very much. This should have a million views! You sound calm and your voice is enjoyable to listen to. You came prepared with a relevant audio sample. You explain everything clearly and concisely and get straight to the point. Lastly, the visual and audio quality, of this video, is perfect. Nice intro/outro music too!

[@curtisjudd]

+Gimme Dopamine thanks!

[@jacedaace01]

Thanx Curtis for this!!! Really helpful...have subscribed as well!!! Take care...

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Jace!

[@kwp9270]

Great video tutorial. Not only was this method highly effective in reducing background (air and mechanical) noise in my audio recording, it was very easy to follow. Have your 998th like.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks K-Axis Wrestling Network!

[@OneTap__]

Very Usefull! A Professional TIP as always! Thank you Judd! :)

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@OneTap__]

+Curtis Judd Are you accepting job offers from Europe?

[@curtisjudd]

+velocitystudios Haha! I will consider all good offers. :)

[@overcominggraduation]

Awesome dude thank you so much! For years I have had background noise and in less than 5 minutes my audio sounds 10X better, thank you so much!

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped!

[@VeganPopTarts]

Thanks this is really helpful! I'm using Audacity to try to restore audio in this anime from the 60s right now.

[@curtisjudd]

Good luck!

[@hfoslayer6195]

Just what I needed. Thanks for the video tutorial! Left you a thumbs up :)

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@bacougle]

Hey Curtis, great tut. Can you advise the best way to take out wind noise. I tried high pass filter but all the settings seem to really effect the voices too much. Thanks in advance

[@curtisjudd]

Other than a high pass filter, the only de-wind plugin of which I'm aware is Izotope RX which isn't cheap. And it still isn't perfect, but if you've got a really important project that you can spend some money on, Izotope RX is worth a try.

[@parentingandgrowthexperience]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@iancraig]

Hi Curtis. With regards to hiss removal, I find the noise gate less invasive on the audio quality and use the graph to set the figures. So if hiss is at say, -48dB, I set the gate threshold to -47dB. If I want the final noise floor to be -70dB, I set the amount of reduction to 70 - 48 = 22dB. That reduces the noise to your target figure and then adjust attack/decay so speech ‘starts and stops’ aren’t impacted. Used this way, you can set the noise floor to retain ‘ambience’ if you wish and not go to complete black. I know that this doesn’t remove hiss while you are speaking, but generally, it can’t be heard. The times when I use noise reduction is when there is actually a noise in the sound that impacts the voice, rather than hiss removal. So for instance, yesterday, I recorded in the kitchen with a kettle boiling. (Don’t ask!!) I used noise reduction for this followed by very slight gating, but for most recordings with just hiss, I use just a noise gate which is really effective.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Ian. Good to have both tools for different situations I find it difficult to get a noise gate to work well for many dialogue clips. With certain types of noise (constant hums and such) using a noise gate results in sound that is very obviously gated or expanded. Good to have both options for different situations and use whichever suits the particular situation. Thanks for the the alternative!

[@iancraig]

Absolutely Curtis. If there is loud noise within the audio, the noise gate does make it obvious. I learned a lot from you though concerning the removal of those kinds of noises by using the frequency display, where if you can spot it, then the use of a notch filter can really help. Until you mentioned it, I wasn’t even aware of it in Audacity but now find it to be really useful thanks to your help. If there’s a suspicion of hiss within the audio itself, I have also tried sampling the hiss before any processing has been done on the original audio and apply it very lightly after gating. Also learned from you, using the reduction at smaller levels but maybe having more than one pass is really effective. Even 3 or 6dB can just knock it down enough to not hear it under speech. It’s just the avoidance, if possible of the noise reduction tool (especially on Audacity where I think it works in a cruder way than the editor that you use) leaves the audio quite a bit less affected. If only for cheaper, quiet microphones .........

[@curtisjudd]

Amen to that and all good points, thanks Ian!

[@mariachiaracolalongo7816]

Thanks lot! All your reviews are clear and precious

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@CZsWorld]

You and Surfaced Studio did a noise reduction video on the same day, haha. We did Adobe though.

[@NobleAbsinthe]

Didn't expect to see you here friend lol!

[@GabrielsLogic]

King of horror

[@100Jim]

Thank man. Just have issues getting rid of key presses and mouse clicks now. As I record voice while playing for lets plays and stuff

[@curtisjudd]

Agreed. Always best to prevent the noise in the first place.

[@manongdrayberbayadpo]

very clear instruction. thank you very much!

[@curtisjudd]

+manongdrayberbayadpo 👍

[@sallyseligman9894]

This is VERY helpful! Thanks so much!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Sally!

[@jsmores333]

Thank you so much for this video!! Well explained and a huge help. If, after running through three cycles of the settings you suggest the noise seems to be gone in the "quiet moment" I left on the track, yet I seem to hear tiny bursts of it during the actual voice sections, is there a setting I should look to first as the variable to potentially fix that? I hope that makes sense, thank you for your time!

[@curtisjudd]

Hi John, totally makes sense. You can definitely try a few more passes. Unfortunately if you get rid of that little bit of remaining noise, it'll start cutting into the dialogue so my goal is usually to just reduce the noise so that it isn't quite as distracting. A goal to remove it all usually ends with dialogue which sounds bad and overly processed. The more worthwhile approach is to focus on getting better recordings in the future. I hope that makes sense.

[@jsmores333]

Mr. Judd - Thank you for your quick response! Sorry mine was so late. Got it, will give that a try and if not see how I can improve the recording quality. Thank you again! Much appreciated.

[@officialricardogomez91]

What do you suggest for static noise? What setting do you recommend to remove it? Its all over my recording - Thanks a lot

[@curtisjudd]

Short term - I'd try exactly what we showed here assuming that your "silent" section has static in it too? Long term - I would look to prevent the static noise in future recordings by troubleshooting your microphone, audio input, etc. I hope that helps!

[@pankaj-sharma3]

Very nice tip, right on point no bs. Thanks

[@curtisjudd]

Thank you.

[@mostafaghali2155]

many thanks. Greetings from Egypt. it really works on Audicity 2.3.3

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Mostafa! Greetings from the Rocky Mountains of Utah!

[@Cobinja]

Doing two light runs of noise reduction sounds good (no pun intended). Why did you use the same noise profile for the second run? Wouldn't it give a better result to fetch a new one?

[@curtisjudd]

+Cobinja Great question and one worth a test! Have you had better results using a new noise print each time?

[@Cobinja]

+Curtis Judd I don't have the comparison. In those cases where I did two runs, I alwys used a new noise print, because I didn't want the second run to remove too much of the good sound. After all the old noise print is for noise that is partially not there any more. Definitely worth a test!

[@jaimerojas6578]

It was really helpful Cuttis Thanks!!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@Cradley684]

Great help Curtis thank you, being new to Audacity finding it a bit frustrating beginners blues I think.

[@curtisjudd]

You're welcome. Audacity is a little overwhelming at first so I totally understand!

[@Track848]

For my voiceovers, I always start off with 5-8 seconds of silence and use that as the sample. I use Audacity, and tried a second pass on a couple of occasions but it removed too much voice. I'll try to lower the settings. Now I normally do one pass, then use the 'Silence Audio' feature in between sentences (or thoughts), to remove breathing and any other noises that are picked up.

[@curtisjudd]

Cool, thanks for the insights!

[@larzolub3650]

HI curt. I understand how to use audacity thanks to you. Here is the problem I have. The audio file i have has other people talking in the background. Is there a way to remove the voices ?

[@curtisjudd]

+larz club Just the same noise reduction plugin and it is tough to do. At best you'll probably need to settle for slightly reducing the other voices.

[@sathyarakina-sathpurushayanta]

Short and sweet, great stuff mate, many thanks !

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Ryan!

[@myndmelt]

Would you suggest using this plug to remove keyboard clack? My mic is on a scissor arm boom.

[@curtisjudd]

+Mynd Melt Hmm, this may or may not help. Worth a try but I'm betting you'll need to do something more along the lines of spectral noise reduction - a topic for another episode (and unfortunately, probably not something that can be done with the included plugins in Audacity).

[@truonganhtu91]

awesome. But how can i reduce noise with this tool in my video? or should i use another tool? Im a newbie at this field so thanks for your reply a lot!

[@ChrisHunterSavesTheDay]

+Tu Anh Truong You have to separate the audio from the video, run the audio through Audacity, then add the audio back to the video. This won't work with audio attached or in a video directly.

[@truonganhtu91]

+Chris Hunter Which way is the best for separate audio from video?(im using adobe premier pro). Cuz only way i can think about is using a another tool for convert that video to audio version.

[@ChrisHunterSavesTheDay]

Tu Anh Truong I use Freemake.com It's free, and you can use it to rip audio from any video file so that you can then import the audio file into Audacity like Curtis does here and make any changes to the audio that you want to make before adding the edited audio back to the original video.

[@curtisjudd]

After you clean the audio in Audacity, you can use Premiere Pro to sync (connect) it back to the video like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGnakqFtqb-olas

[@Cobinja]

+Tu Anh Truong I use ffmpeg to extract the audio from video files. But then again, I mostly use Linux and am used to using the terminal. There is a free tool called Avidemux, which is basically a simple editing tool, but it can also extract audio from videos (It can handle not only .avi files, as the name might suggest). A nice way would be to go to Premiere's menu: "Edit"->"Edit in Audition" and then "Clip" (for one audio track) or "Sequence" (for multi track). Just pretend you're using Audition and make sure you remember the export folder, where you can find the audio files, which you can now edit in Audacity. Re-importing to Premiere is the standard way, like if it's not imported at all yet. Of course it might occur that that menu item (Edit in Audition) is not there if Audition is not installed, I haven't tested that situation ;)

[@NeonsStyleHD]

So you would not elimate it completely? Also, would you remove the noise before or after you process the audio? I usually do it before, but after processing, any remaining noise, tends to be noticable after processing, and running a noise filter again, tends to create a wave like pattern of amplification on the whole file. What's the right way to process? I usually do Noise, EQ (bass then treble boost), normalise, compress and normalise again then any pitch changes. Is this correct?

[@curtisjudd]

That's very similar to how I do it. I'm not sure whether there's a correct way, but this seems to work nicely for me. Good question, thanks for that!

[@NeonsStyleHD]

Curtis Judd Thanks, and thanks for the lighting link.

[@Realunitedstates]

Great lesson! Second pass looks like it works very well. Thanks Curtis!! Paul

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Paul!

[@hypnotyze_]

This video was a life saver! I also appreciate it was straight to the point, thank you!!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@Rivenworld]

Great and useful video as always, thank you very much.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@fionngorilla]

thanks as always. helped a lot. I would be very interested in a compressor manual for audacity. quite often I have to compress dialogues and would like to save some time :)

[@fionngorilla]

ooh, didn't see that u did it the last weeks! thanks!

[@iNastyyyHD]

Thanks! So, I can make these steps then move to Sony Vegas? Because I use to record gameplay with commentary

[@curtisjudd]

Absolutely, yes. Export to .wav, import into Vegas, sync to the video, remove the original audio.

[@iNastyyyHD]

ok I think I understand. I can use the video on Audacity, BUT.. when editing, I will just delete the original audio and add the new one (created on Audacity)

[@curtisjudd]

Exactly! Good luck!

[@joshua3113]

Nice, love the video. I like audacity for this purpose and I have gotten some strange squealing after doing noise reduction. I like the 2 pass technique. Sounds like a good plan.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks, let us know how it goes. Seems like it is mostly about finesse and knowing when to stop trying to get every last bit of noise.

[@neilconfesor9845]

Thank you very much! Very clear explanation....

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@Moses_Kanneh]

Very nice, This helps a lots.

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@lourdeshelenagallagher3517]

Thanks Curtis as narrator should I live 5 seconds of quiet no voice before you start your recording?

[@curtisjudd]

Yes, that’ll give you some material to work with

[@maitham2008]

thank you , loved

[@krimself1845]

Thank so much, very helpful video!

[@curtisjudd]

You're welcome!

[@aneeshmatta1898]

Thank you this helped a lot. my videos have noise in the background all the time.

[@curtisjudd]

+Aneesh Matta you're welcome!

[@beverlybremers1]

Your instruction is great, but my version of Audacity doesn't have the "Waveform dB" choice, just "Waveform", which didn't change the look of the track at all. How do I get the track to look like you did, showing the actual noise level?

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Beverly, yes, they've changed Audacity quite a lot since I made this tutorial. Instead of using the dropdown, click on the numbers which are oriented vertically at the left edge of a track, right click, and choose dB. Best wishes!

[@MorganLawnCareTX]

Which do you do first, normalize OR compress? Do you use noise removal before or after normalizing/compression? Thanks!

[@curtisjudd]

I usually do an initial normalize step to get the loudness to a reasonable level but not too close to clipping the peaks. Then I do the noise removal, then the compression, a few other steps if the audio requires it (e.g., breath control) and then the final normalize step.

[@lindamuvic8110]

Like you brief and to the point style.

[@curtisjudd]

+Linda Muvic thanks!

[@RavenHarmonic2]

Thank you for the helpful video. Always enjoy them. I find myself doing more dialogue and acoustic guitar with my Tascam DR-40, and would like to see more about noise reduction. the weak preamp causes me to amplify the signal to a greater extent than my pc's audio interface, making noise reduction necessary.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks for the feedback Tim.

[@mirmuhammadfahad7133]

thanks man, your approach is really cool

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@MrGamersHut]

Great video man. Really helped out a lot.

[@curtisjudd]

+MrGamersHut Glad it helped!

[@jbandxz6283]

I LOVE YOU YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT WORKED IM SO EXCITEDDD

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@ahmedragab7996]

great work broo thanks alot

[@curtisjudd]

U R welcome!

[@Pleasejustforgetme]

Thanks a bunch for the help!

[@curtisjudd]

You bet!

[@rememberingyourperfection]

I am curious: When you did the SECOND Noise Reduction, you did NOT get a NEW Noise Profile but you simply did the reduction process again. Do you think it would make any difference (be more accurate/precise), if you did ANOTHER Noise Reduction Profile analysis and then ran it with the same settings again? I tried but am not sure simply b/c I personally do not have a good headset, etc... but I'd like to do the best given that Others who will listen, will have better listening equipment. Thanks!

[@curtisjudd]

Hi, yes, it can make a difference in some situations and is a good habit to get a new noise profile before each pass.

[@rememberingyourperfection]

Thank You, I really appreciate your reply! as well as your video!

[@ChaoticRoadMap]

It really helped me. Thank you!

[@curtisjudd]

+Chicken Nation glad it helped!

[@groovedohg]

Hi. I have Audacity 3.1.3. I do not have the toolbar on the left which allows you to change to waveform db. Can you help

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Paul. I'm not sure, haven't worked with Audacity for quite a long time. I'll take a look when I get some time.

[@abekuchbhi518]

thank you it really helped

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@kashiftechgaming]

Thank you very much it worked!!

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped!

[@urbanmetal7802]

Hi, what video recording software did you use? I'm looking for one that can zoom in and out while recording.

[@curtisjudd]

On Mac, Screenflow. On PC, Camtasia.

[@urbanmetal7802]

@@curtisjudd thanks 🙂

[@tanujsuri3577]

Hi Curtis, You have mentioned how to remove noise in audio in Post Processing.. But what about during the recording? I have seen your videos where you have used Sound Blankets.. but I am specifically talking about the setting one can do in the Sound Mixer/Recorders. I am a complete beginner when it comes to sound and generally record it in Zoom H6. But I do not understand as in what setting shall I use in my Zoom H6 to reduce catching noises like AC, Fans or any other low humming noises. i know Lo-Cut filters can do that but I do not understand that what setting are right for that i.e. should the lo-cut be set at -80db or -120db. etc, or how to play with Noise Limiters etc. I hope I was a little clear with what I need to ask. Thanks.

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Tanuj, High pass (sometimes called Low Cut) filters are definitely useful for reducing low frequency noise. In fact, we talked a little bit about this in a recent episode from my classes (Sound for Video Sessions): kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGbGq6xua8yei68m41s If you'd like to be notified of upcoming sessions and submit questions if you sign up for my school (no cost to sign up) over at school.learnlightandsound.com I hope that helps!

[@tanujsuri3577]

Dear Curtis, Thanks a lot for the reply... I am already a member or rather a Student 🙂. I am by the email [e-mail] I thoroughly enjoyed the Sound for video course. But I couldn't find where to post my question at the website. Request you to help with it and if possible make a video explaining the settings to make while recording. Thanks a lot

[@curtisjudd]

+Tanuj Suri I will add it to the list, thanks!

[@SantoYuniarsa]

Thanks a lot for this

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@DennisNikolaisen]

Very helpful video! Thanks

[@curtisjudd]

Thank you for the feedback!

[@nueday]

Helped alot

[@curtisjudd]

+Nue Day thanks, glad it helped!

[@Faktulapa]

Hi, i do all the things u are doing, but i cant get rid of that one high sound that goes through all audoclip. Its a high tone sound and its distracting , dont know how to desribe it. Any suggestions?

[@curtisjudd]

Izotope's RX Elements may do a better job, but of course it has a price tag.

[@curtisjudd]

www.izotope.com/en/products/repair-and-edit/rx/rx-elements.html

[@Faktulapa]

Curtis Judd ty man 🙂👍

[@Faktulapa]

hahah, jā :D

[@Faktulapa]

jā, pld :D

[@SachinMahesh3]

Helped me . thumps uppped! :)

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@shantidey240]

Does the boya by m1 work great with audacity?

[@curtisjudd]

I would think so! Best wishes!

[@arturmuellerromanov4438]

Is there any difference between executing noise reduction 2x with specific parameters or 1x with double the parameters?

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Artur, Technically, no. Ideally what you would do (and I failed to demonstrate here) is sample the noise again for the second round of noise reduction.

[@kHHistorical]

Thanks for sharing my dear friend

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@theunholinesswithin70]

Ok, so, would Audible accept this? Also, using an Aston brand mic, should I buy a foam for it, or should I just stick with the pop filter I have?

[@curtisjudd]

Hi, I am not familiar with Audible's technical requirements, but if you contact them, they should be able to tell you. Foam covers will very slightly reduce high frequencies so if you have a sibilant voice, it can help. Otherwise, your existing pop filter should be fine.

[@theunholinesswithin70]

@@curtisjudd No, ACX (Audible) only told me they don't deal with Audacity tech problems (I asked them about what settings I need-Which aren't tech problems). I'm currently waiting for ACX' response with the results of my submitted sample, but I do hear a minor floor noise. What I want to do, is set Audacity before I record. I'll have to go to Audacity's forum and ask.

[@curtisjudd]

@@theunholinesswithin70 Ok, hopefully they'll be able to get that sorted out for you. Best wishes!

[@AprilWatters]

Hello,, I have a terrible crackling noise after interviewing someone using google on my Mac and recording it with Audacity. Imovie didn't clean up nearly enough. The crackling happens When we're speaking , and Stops when we're not, so the choosing the noise when there's no voice is not possible. Thank you

[@curtisjudd]

Ok, must be a problem with the microphone or perhaps the sensitivity of the mic is set too high. You might experiment with selecting some of the dialogue and see if you can get that to work.

[@DDinTN]

I'll be looking forward to more Audacity videos. Thanks.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks, will do!

[@YungChoppak]

Thank you so much

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@EddieInzauto]

Can you explain why you do 2 passes of 6db at 4 sensitivity rather than one at 12db of 4, 8, or any other sensitivity?

[@curtisjudd]

Mainly because I'm "feeling my way" to the result I want. I had no way of knowing at the start that I'd need multiple passes.

[@EddieInzauto]

@@curtisjudd Oh, ok. That’s simple enough.

[@everettmusicdojo]

mucho gracias!

[@curtisjudd]

+Aaron Dull de nada

[@johneygd]

So if i selecting the noise and then go to noise profile, i can remove that noise sll the way, if this is true, that will save me lots of time and keadage since i did manually zeroed off most of the noise away but it took me 2 hours to do that, yes i did tryed the noise filter but that smoothing filter did make it sounding waterish & wissleling so that’s why i decidee going the hard way,ouch, oh well next time better.

[@curtisjudd]

Yes, I recommend not removing ALL the noise, just reduce it so that it is not too distracting. Otherwise it will sound like everything is under water. Best wishes!

[@yeahnahbeauty]

thank you, this program is pretty new to me and i always end up sounding a tiny bit robotic once i reduce the noise, maybe im being too aggressive

[@curtisjudd]

Yes, always best to back off just a bit. Don't aim for perfectly noise-free, just aim to make the noise less distracting. To get noise-free, you really need to make the space noise free during recording. Best wishes!

[@yeahnahbeauty]

Curtis Judd thank you very much :-) I’m playing around atm with it, I think I need to really dedicate some Time to learning audacity a little better especially pitch, in really sound squeaky in my audio and I wonder if that’s just my hearing or if I’m doing something wrong :-) thanks again

[@curtisjudd]

@@yeahnahbeauty Just had a quick listen to a few seconds of your last two videos. You might consider adding a microphone you can boom over you so that the mic is closer. It'll sound a lot richer. Here's a tutorial on how to do that if you're interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioaonoR4j7CieNU

[@Lakefilms]

Are there any other programs you recommend, like Soundsoap etc? I'm trying to get rid of ambient noise in a scene outdoors. Having a hard time. When I use the noise reduction it does take it down some, but makes the dialogue 'tinny' sounding. Any help is greatly appreciated as it is a big scene I have to work on.

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Lance, izotope RX is good but even it will not remove all the ambient sound without cutting in to the dialogue. The strategy is usually to apply noise reduction until it starts to affect the dialogue and then back off a bit. Good luck!

[@gerardlp640]

In the sample sound you had a small section where you inhale air in-between words you say, how to remove that?

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

+gerardlp640 Several options which are somewhat in-depth but I'll add that topic to the queue for future episodes. Thanks!

[@gerardlp640]

That would be awesome, thank you. BTW, cool channel.

[@elfs9759]

It's pretty good tutorial and it works perfectly to me, so thanks ^^. But I have a lot of different tracks that I need to reduce noise so it would take ages to do it one by one

[@curtisjudd]

+ElfsTV could save time if you cut your film/podcast or whatever first, then run the mic through this

[@elfs9759]

wow, such quick replay o.O well, I've cut out all video, combined audio track and rendered it. Ran it in audacity and now the only thing that I have to do is cut them in smaller pieces and try to find their original places. It's quicker, but all hiss noises are now gone.. thank you so much ^^

[@curtisjudd]

You're welcome and glad it went quicker!

[@chompy666]

you are the best! thank you!!!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks Chompy Charlie!

[@GameFormative]

THANK YOU

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@EmmxnSxvxgeonyt]

Does noise reduction remove the hole audio

[@curtisjudd]

You mean the noise in the sections where there isn't any talking? Yes, most of it.

[@EjayB]

Hey! I'm filming a short movie with my friends, and there is a scene where we are talking but crickets are chirping in the background. Would it be possible to convert the video to an MP3 format, use Audacity's noise reduction tool to get rid of the crickets and save it as an MP3? Any help would be much appreciated :)

[@curtisjudd]

Hi Ejay, I would avoid converting to MP3 because that will make processing the audio and reducing the crickets messier. You'll want to find an app which can extract the audio in a lossless format, preferably as a .WAV. Then you can apply noise reduction and sync it back up to the movie in your video editing app.

[@EjayB]

Thanks Curtis! Helped a lot :)

[@LameCheeseVods]

Ejay B don't know if this helps or not since it's so late but you can also drag your clip into audacity and it should convert it.

[@sortysciaofiscia]

thats very good!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks!

[@gaaraxpo]

the plugin isn't intuitive, I mean it's just gone after we selected the noise profile, who knows if it's already selected or not (there's no notification, and the plugin window is just gone). I'm really confused at first. Thank goodness I found this video

[@curtisjudd]

👍