Someone's recorded and sent me a bunch of audio files that sound great, but have that irritating "background hum" you always get when recording audio.

Is there any way of removing or lessening this defect to make the audio file(s) sound cleaner?

MS.

If your useing the full version of vegas go to the audio fx and try to to adjust the noise gate. Just explore the settings and see what you come up with

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Wil Chapman Jr.
Oly, Washington
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Also try the equalizer - I had an unusable clip the other day, really bad buzz around 1khz, the notch filter got rid totally and hardly affectred the sound quality

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Lowering the tone of video since 2004.

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JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

I've been fiddling with the EQ, but haven't had much luck. The "hum" I'm trying to get rid of is more of a high-frequency wine... The type you can hear from a TV, even if its muted...

MS.

Assuming you haven't got Sony Noise Remover, get hold of VirtualDub (free)
Save your offending audio as WWAV & open in VirtualDub and use the noise remover.
What is required is you select a very small sample (1/3 sec) of the audio containing the hum ONLY then subtract that from the rest of sound.
It's better to do many passes with small samples than one pass with a large sample.
Make sure the sample is really small of you'll get dreadful artifacts.
This may take a few attempts to get right, but it will most probably give you better results than just EQ which you should use in combination.

Using a noise gate will just sound unnatural, removing ambient sound as well as the hum.

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Tim

First place NO I don't get it when I record! If I did I would nail the bugger! Something is playing fast and loose with your audio IN.

Secondly, Sony Noise REDUCTION, does have a HIGH shelf and as long as it is away from what you want, then the high freqs can often be removed. I've got loadsa presets I have created and use. I use them to get me in and around the area and tweak from there. EQ is good. I'm using another EQ a 1/3 party from SONY EQ-ers.

Thirdly - SKYPE me!! Send me a small sample and we can have a go - yeah?

Grazie

Try the notch filter, low pass filter or the parametric (I think) filter and then play with the settings to get rid of the sound. I use it to remove the drone/hum from the camera mic.

Now that's why I can't find it anywhere

Or maybe noise REMOVER was wishful thinking

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Tim

I think the noise reduction is an extra..... but if you do have a hum one of the ones I mention will be better as this noise is of a specific frequency so you can isolate it, were as noise is a spread of frequencies so not easy with the above, but good for the Noise reduction plug-in

The main issue with any noise redux will be that the noise you wish to remove WILL be very near to the frequencies of the sounds you want to keep. This can result in "thinning-down" your target audio. Some of the results of this is the well known "submarine" effects, of sounding like speaking underwater; audio that phases in and out and generally sounding thin and unreal.

IF the unwanted sound has a range of frequencies far enough away from your target audio, then you have a good possibility of correcting the issue. Having near frequencies is a real pain. In this respect, Noise Reduction is good in that you can select, through the Noise Footprint Graph, progressively more and more tighter selections of the unwanted frequencies - plus you can also keep comparing the proposed removal from the wanted audio. In any event, I use a combination of all that has been discussed here. Sometimes I render out and sometimes re-ordering the filters.

I have spent many hours and days understanding and subsequently employing what I've learnt. Although it is a subtle process it can lead to a far better outcome than what was initially thought possible. However, if those frequencies are too close, then the results can be less than acceptable. His and AirCon are the bane of us videographers. Having organisations "switch-off" their local AirCon is sometimes a last resort. But then that is sometimes the only way.

While on this subject - always get the mics as close to the mouth as possible. In a noisy environment, often a cheap mic close up, will sound far better than a mic costing 10x as much 10 feet away. There is a reason why our ears are each side of our heads with those flappy lugs on them! That's also why we add headphones to actually "hear" what we want to have on the final tape. If you ain't hearing what you want - then DO something about it. I always attempt, as far as possible, to design-out issues.

Grazie