Editing Out Breaths and other noises

Comments about LibriVox? Suggestions to improve things? News?
CalmDragon
Posts: 303
Joined: January 20th, 2007, 5:30 pm
Location: SA.TX.USA.NA.Earth.Sol
Contact:

Post by CalmDragon »

Interesting article on generic editing tips:
http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/article.htm?id=grlgsdld
Then again, many articles at http://www.voiceoverxtra.com/ seems interesting to me.
Lucy_k_p
Posts: 2901
Joined: February 16th, 2009, 7:19 am
Location: Bath, UK
Contact:

Post by Lucy_k_p »

Hmm, Audacity doesn't do that if you select and record, it just records in a new track.

I do the: pick a pause in the recording that has no weird noises over it, then paste that over loud breaths, mouse clicks etc method. I've found it serves me well.
So little space, so much to say.
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Me, too, although I leave a lot of my breath noises in. I only remove (errr, paste over) the more obnoxious ones.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
annise
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 38572
Joined: April 3rd, 2008, 3:55 am
Location: Melbourne,Australia

Post by annise »

I tend to squash(de-amplify) any that sound as though I just ran a marathon - still leaves me breathing but somewhat less obtrusively :D

Anne
Starlite
Posts: 16548
Joined: April 30th, 2006, 2:17 pm
Location: Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada

Post by Starlite »

annise wrote:I tend to squash(de-amplify) any that sound as though I just ran a marathon - still leaves me breathing but somewhat less obtrusively :D

Anne
That's what I do! :)
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
Great Plains
Posts: 870
Joined: September 23rd, 2007, 11:02 am
Location: Manchester, NH, America
Contact:

Post by Great Plains »

I delete breaths that have silence in front of them, and I just negative amplify breaths in the middle of sentences.
Daniel, the Cylon
([url=http://librivox.org/newcatalog/people_public.php?peopleid=2136]LV Profile[/url])
LibriFoxy
Posts: 774
Joined: July 28th, 2009, 6:18 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by LibriFoxy »

I leave most "normal" breaths, and "Control + L" all the others.
Rosie in Boston

Coffee Break Collection 12 is up and looking for readers! Theme: The Performing Arts!
Caliban
Posts: 137
Joined: September 9th, 2006, 6:16 pm
Location: Mobile, Alabama
Contact:

Post by Caliban »

I joined the Audacity forum and posted this:

To begin with, thank you for Audacity! It is currently a very popular software used at Librivox, a volunteer organization dedicated to the voice transcription of books which have either fallen out of copyright or otherwise have been placed in the public domain.

www.librivox.org

Since the "reading" of books requires semi-long takes done in a non-studio environment with an open mic it's very commonly necessary to edit out things like extraneous noises and sometimes our own loud breaths which adds a post-production "cleaning" burden which, while easily accomplished by the tools Audacity provides, could be streamlined far more easily by adding a Macro function or adding two more tools to Audacity's already generous toolbox.

1) as an adjunct to the "Silence Highlighted" function could we have a more powerful version that would overwrite the selected area with a sample of normal ambient?

2) A LOT of the editing process involves trimming out bad sections of track - we usually clap hands or make some other noise to mark the spot then just move on. It would be great to have another key function that would delete a selection then "Pull Up" the rest of the track.

THis is just a wish list by a non-programmer!

THank you for your consideration!

Caliban
I'll ket you guys know if there's a response
We're so different! I sometimes wonder why we are friends. Then you remind me.
Starlite
Posts: 16548
Joined: April 30th, 2006, 2:17 pm
Location: Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada

Post by Starlite »

LibriFoxy wrote:I leave most "normal" breaths, and "Control + L" all the others.
Just a caution here..... Dead silence can sound strange on the recording as most rooms are not dead silent. What would be better is to copy some 'room noise' from the beginning of the file and paste it in. It will flow and sound much better. (this is a mistake I made very early on and the solution is so simple).

Esther :)
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
LibriFoxy
Posts: 774
Joined: July 28th, 2009, 6:18 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by LibriFoxy »

Starlite wrote:
LibriFoxy wrote:I leave most "normal" breaths, and "Control + L" all the others.
Just a caution here..... Dead silence can sound strange on the recording as most rooms are not dead silent. What would be better is to copy some 'room noise' from the beginning of the file and paste it in. It will flow and sound much better. (this is a mistake I made very early on and the solution is so simple).

Esther :)
ooh, good idea! It does make a difference, even if it's not visible in Audacity. I usually only Control + L if there's a long bit of "fumbling about" and I then later cut it down. But if I have to cut and paste, I'll take some of the room noise.
Rosie in Boston

Coffee Break Collection 12 is up and looking for readers! Theme: The Performing Arts!
howardellison
Posts: 3
Joined: April 30th, 2010, 1:09 pm
Location: Brixham UK

Post by howardellison »

I'm new to narration and I like to use fast compression to fatten up my voice (radio experience - sorry!) - but that raises the breath noise. Like other people in these posts, I paste in room tone, or de-amplify, but that's going to take forever on a whole book!
I do have a push button that can reduce the noise as I go: effective but distracting, and easy to forget! Is there software that really does the job? If not, is there a physicist out there who can suggest a sensor to detect and delete inhalation in real time? :roll:
peegee
Posts: 685
Joined: November 7th, 2009, 1:55 pm

Post by peegee »

howardellison wrote:I'm new to narration and I like to use fast compression to fatten up my voice (radio experience - sorry!) - but that raises the breath noise. Like other people in these posts, I paste in room tone, or de-amplify, but that's going to take forever on a whole book!
I do have a push button that can reduce the noise as I go: effective but distracting, and easy to forget! Is there software that really does the job? If not, is there a physicist out there who can suggest a sensor to detect and delete inhalation in real time? :roll:
Take a look at this thread, http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25013 specifically the 10th one down, with the subject "Phil and Nadine: The gate". I had the same problem with the compressor bringing up the breathing noise too much, and this was the answer "The Gate".

regards
Phil
RuthieG
Posts: 21957
Joined: April 17th, 2008, 8:41 am
Location: Kent, England
Contact:

Post by RuthieG »

More detailed instructions about the Gate on the Wiki: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Basic_Principles_of_Audio_Processing#The_Gate

Ruth
My LV catalogue page | RuthieG's CataBlog of recordings | Tweet: @RuthGolding
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

People might like to look at the Waves "DeBreath" plug-in (which works with Audacity and other PC or Mac editors that accept plug-ins). It automatically recognizes breath sounds — you can adjust its sensitivity — and then allows you to reduce them partially or completely.
http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=315

It is not free (so maybe you need to convince someone to make it your birthday present), but it does work, and it's easy. Note that it requires the "iLok" system for registering software (even to run the free demo), and that's another expense, unless you already have an iLok. But it works.

Bruce
howardellison
Posts: 3
Joined: April 30th, 2010, 1:09 pm
Location: Brixham UK

Post by howardellison »

Thankyou Phil, Ruth and Bruce. I shall pursue each tip in turn - and will try to make less din in the first place! Howard
Post Reply