Audacity Sound Editing

Loganator456

I've heard it mentioned on Geek Nights before, but how do you highlight a piece of a file that is background noise to cancel it out of the whole thing even if you are talking. Is this possible? I'm trying to get this file as professional sounding as I can for a website that I'm making. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Sail

Not unless the noise is recorded on a separate track ~_^

But you could try the "Noise Reduction" feature under the "Effect" tab.

tuttle88

Not unless the noise is recorded on a separate track ~_^

But you could try the "Noise Reduction" feature under the "Effect" tab.

Be careful with that though, it can make you sound really weird.

Dave

Audacity's noise filter is a piece of junk. I wouldn't advise using it. The artifacts it leaves behind sound worse than the noise.

Sail

The best way to get rid of noise is to not have any at all. Turn off the washing machine, the AC, close the door, etc. before recording anything.

tuttle88

The best way to get rid of noise is to not have any at all. Turn off the washing machine, the AC, close the door, etc. before recording anything.

And make sure you feed the cat, my first episode I had to redo so many times because the bloody cat was clawing at me.

Rym

Noise reduction during recording:

• Use one unidirectional microphone per speaker.
• Use a downward expander (one per input if possible, but one near the end of the chain is far better than none).
• Use balanced cables.
• Ensure that all of your equipment is grounded to a common source.
• Use shockmounts or otherwise isolate microphones from mechanical vibrations.

Noise reduction in post-production depends quite a bit on the type of noise. For hums, you can generally use a high-pass filter to knock it out. Static can be removed with a low-pass filter. Background noise can be removed with a software noise gate or downward expander.

Any other type of noise cannot easily be removed. Audacity's noise reduction does little more than analyze the frequency content of a sample and proportionally reduce the amplitudes of said frequencies. To get the sample, highlight a quiet section of your audio (containing ONLY the noise and nothing else). Then select "Noise Reduction" and then "Get Noise Profile." Now, select the entire audio track and remove the noise. It will use the last "noise profile" you took.

It's fairly inelegant, and rarely will it serve your purposes. You're better off removing the source of the noise or finding a less destructive method.

Rym

Audacity has many new features. But it's still largely unusable out of the box for real engineering. The compressor is still weakest sauce, and many of the filters lack basic intelligent defaults or outright do the wrong thing. I expect a normalize function on a stereo source to at least give me the option of normalizing both tracks together, or else default to doing so.

Audacity is still superior for process edit (even though it doesn't really work).

open_sketchbook

We use audacity to record and edit the voice files for our mod, but they don't need to be super quality anyway.

It does what it does and it's free. Good enough for me!

Rym

I used it for recording GeekNights long ago, but never for mastering. The tools are just too paltry, particularly the compressor. For something small, it's about as useful as The Gimp: fine unless you need even one of the functions of proper software.

I used The GIMP just fine until I needed to print things. Then I needed Photoshop.

open_sketchbook

Ooh, good comparison. I use GIMP for texturing because I find the tools much more functional and straightforward than photoshop, but I gotta pop open PS when I want to use certain filters or channel edits.

Rym

I find the tools much more functional and straightforward than photoshop

I did until I used Photoshop for any amount of time. I then realized that the GIMP only made sense because I didn't know what I was doing. ;^)

open_sketchbook

I used to use photoshop exclusively, but now I just find it clunky and imprecise. To each their own, I suppose.

Victor Frost

How to use Audacity for proper noise reduction:
1. Download Audacity
2. Feel nice and warm because you've download open source software.
3. Pirate Adobe Audition 3.
4. Feel nice and warm because you're actually getting shit done.

Rym

3. Pirate Adobe Audition 3.

Every pirate copy of this (or even CoolEdit) I've poked at from the Pirate Bay has had malware packaged with it.

Victor Frost

You must be getting it from weird places. I ran tons of virus checks on mine before I installed it and it came up clean.

Rym

I ran tons of virus checks on mine before I installed it and it came up clean.

So did mine. But I installed them into sandboxed VMs for testing and saw all manner of interesting outbound packets to specific interesting destinations as soon as they were installed.

WindUpBird

I got Audition CS5.5 the other day, and it's clean. What do you use for sandboxing, Rym?

Victor Frost

I ran tons of virus checks on mine before I installed it and it came up clean.

So did mine. But I installed them into sandboxed VMs for testing and saw all manner of interesting outbound packets to specific interesting destinations as soon as they were installed.

Ah, maybe that's why I haven't noticed it. Any software I pirate I tell the firewall to basically never let it communicate with anything. I'll have to run checks on my other traffic now.

What a bummer if I've been had.

Rym

What do you use for sandboxing, Rym?

Any VM.

WindUpBird

What do you use for sandboxing, Rym?

Any VM.

Alright, well, riddle me this, because I've acquired the new Adobe creative suite to put on a new laptop, and I'd obviously like to avoid malware: how do you identify these "interesting packets going to specific interesting destinations?"

Rym

how do you identify these "interesting packets going to specific interesting destinations?"

Any traffic going out to an IP I don't recognize or can't explain. None of it was happening before I installed the warez, and nothing changed but the installation of said warez.

Victor Frost

Alright, well, riddle me this, because I've acquired the new Adobe creative suite to put on a new laptop, and I'd obviously like to avoid malware: how do you identify these "interesting packets going to specific interesting destinations?"

Mind you, strange packets could be only one symptom of malware. The other effects could be hidden and far more devious.

WindUpBird

Alright, well, riddle me this, because I've acquired the new Adobe creative suite to put on a new laptop, and I'd obviously like to avoid malware: how do you identify these "interesting packets going to specific interesting destinations?"

Mind you, strange packets could be only one symptom of malware. The other effects could be hidden and far more devious.

Yeah. And here I am needing vector, audio, and photo editing while lacking the $1k for the Adobe suite.

Fuck Adobe.

Victor Frost

If you do at any point get the cash, you can buy it, then when tax time comes around you file under Schedule-C and deduct it as a business expense.

WindUpBird

That's a pretty awesome tip. Thanks dude.

TheWhaleShark

Any traffic going out to an IP I don't recognize or can't explain. None of it was happening before I installed the warez, and nothing changed but the installation of said warez.

Is it possible that it's Adobe doing background information collection for advertising purposes? Could be sending to a server somewhere that isn't publicized as being Adobe's.

Though I guess the source doesn't matter, does it? Passive data collection is passive data collection, no matter who does it.

Victor Frost

Is it possible that it's Adobe doing background information collection for advertising purposes? Could be sending to a server somewhere that isn't publicized as being Adobe's.

'swhy I killed it's access to the outside world post-install, when it doesn't have UAC elevation. I don't like spies.

Apreche

Never install any untrusted software outside of a sandbox. I have a copy of Windows XP in VirtualBox that I put shady things into like a pirated copy of MS Office. Virus checkers are completely worthless. I don't know how many times we have to say this, but there is no reason to have a virus checker or anti-malware software, period. Uninstall them and never use them.

If they offer real-time protection, then they significantly hurt performance by constantly checking everything for badness. If they don't offer real-time protection, then they don't find problems until it is too late. Even when they do detect something, there is no guarantee they will remove it 100%. The only way is to completely reinstall the operating system. Also, the vast majority of things you will encounter in the real world are going to be newer than the definitions known to the anti-virus, so it won't even detect them.

The only way to be absolutely safe is to never trust anything ever. ANYTHING EVER. REALLY. SERIOUSLY.

WindUpBird

Alright, so I've got more questions. I've got a lot of Warez, for the same reasons most college students do: I'm broke compared to a lot of other people, and I'd rather eat than have a ton of old video games and the latest CS Master Collection. So, let's say I set up a sandbox like Rym suggested and I kill all networking. Fine. Done. Now, can I save the state of that VM in VirtualBox so I don't need to reinstall and reconfigure Photoshop, Illustrator, and video games any time I want to work on them?

Apreche

Alright, so I've got more questions. I've got a lot of Warez, for the same reasons most college students do: I'm broke compared to a lot of other people, and I'd rather eat than have a ton of old video games and the latest CS Master Collection. So, let's say I set up a sandbox like Rym suggested and I kill all networking. Fine. Done. Now, can I save the state of that VM in VirtualBox so I don't need to reinstall and reconfigure Photoshop, Illustrator, and video games any time I want to work on them?

Clearly you don't understand what a Virtual Machine is. Go get yourself a copy of VirtualBox and install Windows XP in it. Don't worry if it's a pirated XP, an iso file can't hurt you even if it is full of virii.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

If you want to do it a little easier, try making an Ubuntu VirtualBox first.