Hi Bob,
You wrote: Mostly what I would like to do efficiently is take material from my collection of lp's and cassettes, and hopefully make them sound a little better if possible--get rid of some of the background noise, hiss etc..
David:For removing clicks from vinyl recordings, there is Click removal under the effects menu. I have not used this so far.
There is also a Noise Removal effect, which many people have trouble with the first few times they have tried to use it.
The following assumes you already know how to select some audio in Audacity -
1a. After you have loaded the audio you want to reduce noise from, select a short sample - about half a second or more - of just the noise you'd like to remove.
2. From the effects menu select Noise Removal.
3. Click on 'Get noise profile'. This tells the noise remover to check the audio you selected, and establish which frequencies you want removed.
4. Select all the audio you want to remove noise from.
5. From the effects menu select Noise Removal once again. This time use your left and right cursor key to select the level of noise reduction (levels go from 0 to thirty in Audacity 1.3.1, from 0 to fifteen in prior versions). Select a low level of noise reduction first.
6. To check a small portion of what happens when you apply this level of noise reduction, click on the Preview button. This plays just a few seconds of what results you'll get if you apply this level of reduction. If you don't like the results, go back to step 5 and select a different level of noise reduction.
7. If you like what you hear, select Noise Removal again and click on the Okay button.
8. (number 1b.) If you get weird electronic sounds even with lowest reduction level, use the Amplify effect to first reduce the volume of the noise profile before you proceed to step 2. Use a negative number such as negative 6db.
bob: At the moment I am considering a recording I madae a number of years ago in my living room, which is clear, but the room being carpeted and with accoustical ceiling it's pretty dead. It would be nice to add a little space to the sound rather than having it sound like it was maade in a closet full of fur coats.
David: Under the effects menu there is a reverb effect, call Gverb, spelled g v e r b. Yes, that's 'verb' with the letter 'g' in front of it.
You need to experiment with this a lot to find something you like. The first edit field is room size, the default is seventy five meters! A heck of a lot bigger than your living room! And there are other edit fields such as reverb time (how long the reverb takes to fade out) and more. I'll look for a tutorial on this effect and post it to the list.
bob: The otherproject which is ahead is modifying a couple of recordings I have from Music Minus One so that they will match my piano is pitch, and maybe slow them down a little.
David: There are three 'Change' effects under the effects menu: change pitch, change speed, change tempo.
change pitch changes pitch without changing tempo. change tempo changes tempo without changing pitch. change speed is like playing with a turntable - both pitch and tempo get changed.
Bob: I see that most of you are into much more complicated combining of this and that, but I'm sure I'll find that interesting to follow.
David: We all have different preferences. I have not done any digital multitracking yet, most of what I have done in Audacity is write plug-ins for it.
David
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