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Removing noise from spoken audio

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:47 pm
by dexus5
Hi guys,

I am having a big issue with sound and my video camera.
When using extenal microphone there is a terible noise always present.

http://www.dexus5.com/noise.wav

http://www.dexus5.com/talking.wav

I need to remove the noise from the spoken word, however without distorting the spoken audio.

Is there a way to "exclude" this single frequency from the main file using goldwave ?

Re: Removing noise from spoken audio

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:04 pm
by DougDbug
Try the Noise Reduction filter -

Select/highlight the noise and click Copy. (That put's the noise into the clipboard.)

Then select/highlight the main/talking file and run Noise Reduction with the Use Clipboard option.

In my quick-test (I didn't really listen carefully) that seems to remove the electrical noise and I didn't notice any "damage" to the main voice. However the background talking and "room noise" did seem to be "changed" and it sounds a little weird after noise reduction.
I need to remove the noise from the spoken word, however without distorting the spoken audio.
There's a reason professional recordings are made in soundproof studios, with good equipment and good mc-placement, etc. On-location movie dialog is re-recorded in the studio, etc. Even with professional software there is only so-much you can do.

Noise reduction works best when you have a tiny, constant, background noise... It works best when you don't really need it. It can sometimes make a good recording into a great recording. But if the noise is bad, sometimes "The cure is worse than the disease".
Is there a way to "exclude" this single frequency from the main file using goldwave ?
It's not a single frequency. Of course the talking isn't a single frequency either (and that's always the issue with noise filtering). However, there is a dominant ~8kHz component.* You can try a notch filter (a narrow "bandstop" filter) at 8kHz. (I didn't try that.)

* I used another application to look at the noise spectrum.

Re: Removing noise from spoken audio

Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:11 pm
by dexus5
Wow thank you, you are a life saver.
I will mask the distorted background noise with music, but the electronic noise was overpowering even music.

Again many thanks !

Re: Removing noise from spoken audio

Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 6:15 am
by JamesBotch
Sincerely, this are great tips DougDbug!! I have been looking for a way to filter out those unwanted noise. Check out my latest blogs here, here and here. I'm also the editor for CameenGo.com