Excerpts from Kevin Cosgrove's message of 2010-06-02 01:59:30 +0200: > > On 2 June 2010 at 0:10, Philipp <hollunder@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > It would be nice if I could at least improve the recording, but > > I don't quite know how to start. My only 'source' file is a > > single mp3. > > Bummer. But, ya can still learn. > > > The major problems of the recording are: 1) quite a lot too > > much bass of the acoustic guitar - this is easy to correct > > > > 2) a very loud noise, possibly from some part of a laptop. To > > my knowledge the recording was made in two takes, guitar and > > voice, on a laptop with a cheap mic of some sort. The noise > > seems to be located mainly somewhere around 12kHz, a region > > which seems to be important for the clarity of the voice. Any > > attempts to just pull down with an eq (4-band parametric for > > example is what I tried today) had a significant impact on the > > voice. > > > > 3) a constant level of noise, probably from some part of the > > cheap equipment used. Due to the two takes it's 'doubled' for > > the most part of the song. > > Is there any part of the sound file that has only the noise > present, without the music playing? The more the better; 5-10 > seconds would be good, and 1-2 seconds might be adequate. If > so, then you could try the noise removal effect in Audacity. > I use it often and I'm quite happy with it. I would try the > noise removal first, before compounding the recording with other > effects. Thanks for your reply Kevin. Audacity and its noise removal facilities was the first thing I tried, about 7 years ago, back then on windows. I may have tried it another time in between. Maybe it's time to give it another shot. > Audacity at version 1.3.11 (probably before then, but certainly > after 1.3.0) has a good graphic equalizer in it. > > Parametric EQ might help to really "zoom in" on some things. > > > To tip it all off, I can't even make out all lyrics. It might > > be that some significant hints are simply masked by the noise, > > or they simply are hard to make out. > > After the noise reduction, then you might try compression or > expansion to isolate various sounds. Frequency sensitive > compression or expansion might also help, but is more difficult > to use. I've seen some calf sideband compressor, maybe it will help with that, thanks for the idea. > > I'd really love to somehow get this recording to an enjoyable > > state, no matter how involving it is. Given the source it seems > > next to impossible, but it has to be possible to make at least > > some improvements. > > One thing you might try, which I haven't tried, is to make > several passes at the file. On each pass you try to isolate one > instrument or vocal, making that sound as good as you can, while > trying to eliminate all the other sounds. Saving a collection > of those kinds of sound files might allow you to mix those > intermediate files back together to produce something useful. This is certainly a thing worth trying, thanks. I'm not sure thought that I can isolate it well enough to make this work. > Is this recording stereo, with things panned somewhat left and > other things panned somewhat right, and yet other things panned > to center? If so, then you might be able to get at yet more > aspects of the recording by subtracting right from left, or visa > versa. >From what I gathered today the mp3 is stereo, but it was recorded in two passes with a single mic afaik, and I'm reasonably sure that there's no panning whatsoever. I'll check, but I think there's nothing to be gained in this way. > Hmm, you might also websearch for "audio forensics" or "audio > restoration" or similar topics as I'm sure there are folks who've > been farther down this path. Thanks for the search hints. > Please report back on how it goes. I'll look for your report in 7 > years. ;-) > > Good luck! I hope it won't take another 7 years, but who knows... -- Regards, Philipp -- "Wir stehen selbst enttäuscht und sehn betroffen / Den Vorhang zu und alle Fragen offen." Bertolt Brecht, Der gute Mensch von Sezuan _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
