Background noise during speech, but not in between? [No longer relevant]

[msfry]

Will some good technical soul please listen to a sample of this file, somewhere in the middle, and tell me how to advise a new reader what might be going on and how to fix it. Oddly, the background noise sometimes does appear in between phrases, but mostly it goes quiet when the reader is not speaking.

Of course, Checker shows a background noise reading of 24, but that must be an average because it is quite loud when present.

https://librivox.org/uploads/philchenevert/ghostsihaveseen_11_tweedale_128kb.mp3

[GrayHouse]

Does the microphone have built-in noise reduction? It may be giving mixed results, so it may be better to turn it off and remove the noise using an alternative method.

Has the audio been processed using Audacity Noise Reduction? If so, it's important that the noise sample used is truly representative of the background noise you want removed. It can cause problems if the background noise varies (with things such as passing cars, aircraft etc). It may be better to use the Noise Gate Effect which is less selective about what it removes. Try adjusting the Gate Threshold level to get a satisfactory result, maybe somewhere around -45 dB. Don't set it too high or you get that 'pumping' effect that can sound distracting. ETA: Or use both - use the Noise Gate to clean up what's left after applying Noise Reduction.

-Ian

[TriciaG]

I haven't listened and have to run out the door, but for those in the Peanut Gallery:

Of course, Checker shows a background noise reading of 24, but that must be an average because it is quite loud when present.

Checker only checks the noise in the end silence.

For the record, the 24.4 dB is dead silence (as if someone did a Generate > Silence or totally killed all sound on the end of the file.)

[msfry]

Checker only checks the noise in the end silence.

For the record, the 24.4 dB is dead silence (as if someone did a Generate > Silence or totally killed all sound on the end of the file.)

Dang! Learn something new every day around here.

[sjmarky]

Well, that is odd. The noise continues a bit after the voice during pauses, then drops by like -15db. It's like a noise gate with a very slow attack. I think if you do a noise reduction using a bit of the noise during one of the pauses, that should resolve it.

[msfry]

Thanks, all. I directed Agnes (the reader's) attention to this thread, so perhaps she will pick up on some tips. I recall when I was recording using my Logitech noise cancelling mike/headphones when I began recording, I had this problem on and off. I can't remember what I did to fix it, but there was a fix.

[AgnesRobert]

Hello,

first of all, thank you for pointing out a thing I am doing badly! really it's great, I have been fearing that everyone will just not do that, because we of course want people to enjoy themselves, not get intimidated, or feel bad, or stop recording (which is reasonable and I do understand as I like all people have very hurtable feelings). as my current life goal is to record things for Librivox until I stop being bad at it, and then continue until I am almost maybe decent at it, and hopefully maybe one day even close to good at it, well anyway I am very grateful for the help

I have not generated any silence, as I have seen it said not to do that over and over and I don't even know how

first I get a noise profile from the seconds I have at the end, and generally hit the entire thing with it set to 6, 6.00, 6, reduce. and when it still has a lot of noise left I hit it a second time with that (unless I record a thing between about 8:45 and 9:45 at night I have a lot of noise, sadly can't just record later because apartment building, nor can I record very early cause neighbors) I do try to make sure my noise profile is representative of the files noise as a whole, and not just say that incredibly noisy car noise that just happened after I said end of chapter, I record noise at the end until I get some typical for the file noise if I notice it is suddenly more noise than the overall file noise level.

I imagine what is mostly happening here is that I tend to have a lot of noisy breathing (most of the time at least other times I don't for some reason) and I have been going over the really loud breaths (all of them individually ;-;) with their own noise reduction (usually once or twice in the same 6, 6.00, 6, reduce settings) really without doing something to them I fear it is unlistenable to(honestly I fear my first two-three chapters or essays from books are just completely terrible now that I know how to do this even the slightly better than I was initially doing, which is very sad to me cause I loved the material and I feel now that I have ruined it) though maybe I am doing exactly the wrong thing now and have made it weird in a different way and something else would be a far better option

other things hmmm
it is very noisy where I live, smallish town but at the intersection of two highways (sometimes I wake up at night to highway noise) and one of those highways turns into the street outside my house before turning back into a highway further north, there are plane sounds too I have to wait for them to pass sometimes, the dive bar across from me and the mechanics are also sometimes not helpful depending on the hour of my recording. I stop and redo things all the time because of planes, cars, semi trucks, noisy drunk people, whatnot and I am sure I don't always notice.

the mic I use is a blue yeti it has a gain knob on the back which I have been using to some extent (I still have a ton of noise when using it but not completely unreasonable, I don't turn it up?down? the direction where there is less noise cause then things just get weird and bad), I also have it set to the pattern where it is getting noise from the front of the mic, and have been having it on a boom arm I'd say about 10 inches from my mouth and slightly up and to the side with a pop filter

I think I hit this file with the de-clicker, probably, I have been trying to fix the clicking sounds other ways too (all the water, no real tea on recording days ;-;, small sips of a hot herbal tea while recording, green apples if it's still somehow very bad, and just giving up and rerecording on the next day) but then I don't imagine the de-clicker is any part of this problem. I am perhaps abusing the de-clicker when I hit a whole file with it though

I also use loudness normalization, at the end of a project, to get it to a good level if it is not at one (I don't recall whether I did that to this one or not)

hello, I am very new and know nothing

my best, but probably insane, plan so far is to do breathing and other vocal exercises for a few years till I don't have this noisy breathing problem. which I having been rather consistent at for a few monthes and are helping but that is a very long term solution and some short term solutions to go with it would be great too

[TriciaG]

I listened to about 40 seconds around the 10 minute mark, and I didn't hear any background noise. I did hear a breath, but it was not loud at all.

Perhaps if one listens through a headset, one might hear something. But it's got to be pretty minimal. It's certainly within LV specs.

Is there a specific time stamp at which one can listen to whatever the background noise is in question?

[Peter Why]

Agnes, you said ".. first I get a noise profile from the seconds I have at the end, and generally hit the entire thing with it set to 6, 6.00, 6, reduce. and when it still has a lot of noise left I hit it a second time with that..."

It sounds as if you use the same noise profile for each noise reduction. You should get a new noise profile each time you run the reduction. This may be the cause of your problem. I couldn't duplicate the effect when I tried just now, as my environment is too quiet at this time of day, but I'll try later.

Peter

[Winnifred]

I listened to about 40 seconds around the 10 minute mark, and I didn't hear any background noise. I did hear a breath, but it was not loud at all.

Perhaps if one listens through a headset, one might hear something. But it's got to be pretty minimal. It's certainly within LV specs.

Is there a specific time stamp at which one can listen to whatever the background noise is in question?

From 17:11 on, it seems to happen several times, always behind Agnes’ voice when it’s at its loudest. I don’t think it’s breath-related. Is it possible the file has just been over-processed?

[Winnifred]

the mic I use is a blue yeti it has a gain knob on the back which I have been using to some extent (I still have a ton of noise when using it but not completely unreasonable, I don't turn it up?down? the direction where there is less noise cause then things just get weird and bad), I also have it set to the pattern where it is getting noise from the front of the mic, and have been having it on a boom arm I'd say about 10 inches from my mouth and slightly up and to the side with a pop filter

I have a blue yeti too. I set the gain knob when I first started doing recordings and haven’t touched it since. My impression was that once you get it to the right place, it shouldn’t need adjusting. I too have lots of background noise (construction, drilling, a river, crows, my fridge) but I try to record when those are at a minimum, so I don’t have to stop and start.

I have my mic on a stand beside my mouth without a pop filter, but only about 6 inches away. If it were 10 inches away, I’d have to speak too loudly for my comfort. I wonder if that’s an issue (having to crank your recording volume so high that it’s causing some kind of weird reverberation)?

[msfry]

In the vein of "learning something new every day", I did not note the times on the file where I noticed the problems. Sorry. My further mistake was to post the original file instead of a snippet with a different name, forgetting that the original file would surely be edited, and the problem would be altered or disappear for any future Samaritan who may wish to listen and offer generic advice about this problem--one which I have grappled with in years past myself and run across occasionally in other files.

As it now stands, the reader has already submitted their edits, the file is PL OK, and I can no longer find the loud noises I cited on the original file.

[TriciaG]

Well, it's good the noise is gone, but frustrating that the cause and solution weren't determined.

I've marked the title of the thread, so others don't try to jump in.

[AgnesRobert]

oh dear, yes I didn't think of that when I uploaded the new fixed one. but thanks everybody I am already using your advice on more recordings.

[AgnesRobert]

Agnes, you said ".. first I get a noise profile from the seconds I have at the end, and generally hit the entire thing with it set to 6, 6.00, 6, reduce. and when it still has a lot of noise left I hit it a second time with that..."

It sounds as if you use the same noise profile for each noise reduction. You should get a new noise profile each time you run the reduction. This may be the cause of your problem. I couldn't duplicate the effect when I tried just now, as my environment is too quiet at this time of day, but I'll try later.

Peter

I was indeed using the same noise profile, but now I know better, thank you very much