Making a great audition - Noise (Floor) Removal
Dec 21, 2016 13:28:54 GMT -8
Lady Stardust ★, The Uncertain Man, and 5 more like this
Post by duffyweber on Dec 21, 2016 13:28:54 GMT -8
Noise Floor and Background Removal - getting rid of that hiss on all your recordings:
(If you're the impatient type, or pick up on things quickly, just hit the bold sections)
Ever wonder how people get their audio sounding so clean? Crisp, professional sounding audio will help generate a LOT more interest in your auditions and nothing helps quite so much as simply cleaning out the noise floor - the hiss of background noise you get from the mic itself while it's recording.
Luckily, noise removal is easy, fast and painless. (Yes, I'm aware my lead-in sounds like a cheesy radio ad.) XD
What you want to do each time you start recording is to create a noise floor profile. Stand in front of the mic at reading distance, and try to record 5 to 10 seconds of absolute dead silence. You need to be in front of the mic but don't move, shuffle, click, brush anything or breathe.
NOTE: It cannot contain pets moving, airplanes flying overhead, cars passing, etc. (This isn't as much a problem if you have a proper sound booth, or a really good alternative, but I'm not assuming anything about your recording environment.)
Then, after you've patiently created a small period of silence in your recording, begin your recording session.
At the end of your session, save a copy of the file before you begin working on it. (This might be the best habit you ever develop. Seriously.)
Find a portion of your "silent" area, and listen at high volume to make sure there aren't any anomalies - clicks, breaths, etc.
Select as large sized a chunk of "silence" as you can without any sound other than pure background hiss/noise floor.
IN AUDACITY:
Go to to "Effect" at the top menu bar, and choose "Noise Removal" (Now "Noise Reduction" in the newer versions of Audacity)
[Pic] hulahulamoocow.com/noiseremoval1.png
Select "Get Noise Profile"
[Pic] hulahulamoocow.com/noiseremoval2.png
The screen will disappear.
Select your ENTIRE TRACK.
Re-open the "Noise Removal"/"Noise Reduction" feature again and, after matching the following settings*, simply hit "OK."
[Pic]
(If you've done this once, ever, you can safely just hit CTRL+R instead of re-opening the whole dialogue and hitting OK. It'll re-apply the last effect. Conveniently enough, with Noise Reduction, this simply applies it at the current settings, and doesn't in fact, repeat the profile selection.)
You're done!
IN REAPER:
In Reaper, it's a little more involved: you'll want to use the ReaFIR plugin.
Select your track and go to FX.
"Add"
Look for "VST: ReaFir (FFT EQ+Dynamics..."
Click the “OK” button and then close the ReaFIR window by clicking on the red X in the upper right corner.
Select your silent region in your recording.
Then click on the Toggle Repeat button (down by the Play and Stop buttons).
Open ReaFIR tool again, change "Mode" drop-down to "Subtract"and put mark in the "Automatically build noise profile" box.
Now, begin playing the silent portion of your track. (Space bar). Wait until the background hiss disappears, then hit the space bar again to stop playback.
VERY IMPORTANT: Now UNcheck the box that says "Automatically build noise profile. "
Toggle the repeat function off, and listen to your track to make sure the noise removal is successful.
You should hear crisp audio with no noise.
You're done!
***************************************
For persistent background noise, repeat the process - reselecting the "silent" area again, and re-creating the profile based on its new sound, but DO NOT use it 3 or more times, except in extreme cases - it will begin badly distorting the sound of your voice in places you may not notice at first (until you realize every time you said "piece" it has become "pee.")
If you like, you can keep the raw recording of silence and use it over and over again (provided you don't move your stuff around in the booth or swap out mics a lot) but it's just as fast and easy to stand CAREFULLY in front of your mic for 5 - 10 seconds as you begin each new session.
Happy Recording! ^_^
____________________________________
Short version:
1. Add a silent area to your recording where you're standing in front of the mic being REALLY quiet.
2. Use that silent area as a profile for your noise removal.
3. Apply the reduction to the whole recording.
4. Get more callbacks. ; )
Note: This is a first-draft of this guide. Any way it could be improved or expanded, I'm all ears. ; )
(If you're the impatient type, or pick up on things quickly, just hit the bold sections)
Ever wonder how people get their audio sounding so clean? Crisp, professional sounding audio will help generate a LOT more interest in your auditions and nothing helps quite so much as simply cleaning out the noise floor - the hiss of background noise you get from the mic itself while it's recording.
Luckily, noise removal is easy, fast and painless. (Yes, I'm aware my lead-in sounds like a cheesy radio ad.) XD
What you want to do each time you start recording is to create a noise floor profile. Stand in front of the mic at reading distance, and try to record 5 to 10 seconds of absolute dead silence. You need to be in front of the mic but don't move, shuffle, click, brush anything or breathe.
NOTE: It cannot contain pets moving, airplanes flying overhead, cars passing, etc. (This isn't as much a problem if you have a proper sound booth, or a really good alternative, but I'm not assuming anything about your recording environment.)
Then, after you've patiently created a small period of silence in your recording, begin your recording session.
At the end of your session, save a copy of the file before you begin working on it. (This might be the best habit you ever develop. Seriously.)
Find a portion of your "silent" area, and listen at high volume to make sure there aren't any anomalies - clicks, breaths, etc.
Select as large sized a chunk of "silence" as you can without any sound other than pure background hiss/noise floor.
IN AUDACITY:
Go to to "Effect" at the top menu bar, and choose "Noise Removal" (Now "Noise Reduction" in the newer versions of Audacity)
[Pic] hulahulamoocow.com/noiseremoval1.png
Select "Get Noise Profile"
[Pic] hulahulamoocow.com/noiseremoval2.png
The screen will disappear.
Select your ENTIRE TRACK.
Re-open the "Noise Removal"/"Noise Reduction" feature again and, after matching the following settings*, simply hit "OK."
[Pic]
(If you've done this once, ever, you can safely just hit CTRL+R instead of re-opening the whole dialogue and hitting OK. It'll re-apply the last effect. Conveniently enough, with Noise Reduction, this simply applies it at the current settings, and doesn't in fact, repeat the profile selection.)
You're done!
IN REAPER:
In Reaper, it's a little more involved: you'll want to use the ReaFIR plugin.
Select your track and go to FX.
"Add"
Look for "VST: ReaFir (FFT EQ+Dynamics..."
Click the “OK” button and then close the ReaFIR window by clicking on the red X in the upper right corner.
Select your silent region in your recording.
Then click on the Toggle Repeat button (down by the Play and Stop buttons).
Open ReaFIR tool again, change "Mode" drop-down to "Subtract"and put mark in the "Automatically build noise profile" box.
Now, begin playing the silent portion of your track. (Space bar). Wait until the background hiss disappears, then hit the space bar again to stop playback.
VERY IMPORTANT: Now UNcheck the box that says "Automatically build noise profile. "
Toggle the repeat function off, and listen to your track to make sure the noise removal is successful.
You should hear crisp audio with no noise.
You're done!
***************************************
For persistent background noise, repeat the process - reselecting the "silent" area again, and re-creating the profile based on its new sound, but DO NOT use it 3 or more times, except in extreme cases - it will begin badly distorting the sound of your voice in places you may not notice at first (until you realize every time you said "piece" it has become "pee.")
If you like, you can keep the raw recording of silence and use it over and over again (provided you don't move your stuff around in the booth or swap out mics a lot) but it's just as fast and easy to stand CAREFULLY in front of your mic for 5 - 10 seconds as you begin each new session.
Happy Recording! ^_^
____________________________________
Short version:
1. Add a silent area to your recording where you're standing in front of the mic being REALLY quiet.
2. Use that silent area as a profile for your noise removal.
3. Apply the reduction to the whole recording.
4. Get more callbacks. ; )
Note: This is a first-draft of this guide. Any way it could be improved or expanded, I'm all ears. ; )