Background noise and echos

[shameeta]

Hi all,

So what's the best way to get rid of background noises or hissing sound from voice recordings? Just want to hear the voice. And Echo's. What can I do about those.

Thanks

Shameeta

[douglas roberts]

I'm intrigued,
What kind of background noise?
Hiss from analog tape??
Echoes? Where were the "voices" recorded, in a cave!?
We need a little bit more info to be able to help you,
Doug

[shameeta]

Ok Doug, since you asked so nicely Just kidding.

Well in desperation, I did some recording of voice (talking) in a room with no sound proofing. ANd to top it up, I had the CPU in the room too. What a hum it make. So there you go. Two major sounds I would like to eliminate. Echo and the sound of the CPU. One out of two wouldn't be bad. If you are going to suggest the 4 band EQ, then please let me know what exactly to do with it. Not so sound savy.


Thanks a bunch.

Shameeta

[douglas roberts]

Hi!
You can certainly clean up some of the CPU hum with the EQ, it's probably in the range of 60 to 120Hz so choose the low shelf setting and set the gain to +6 or so, play around a bit with the frequency setting until you hit the hum frequency then bring the gain back down until it sounds good. You might start to lose the bottom register of the voice a little. There's not much you can do about the echo though...sorry...
If you're going to mix in a pro studio they should have some toys that can clean up the hum better than the EQ can, Lafont and Urie filters and Dolby CAT units are great for that work.
Cheers
Doug

[shameeta]

Hey thanks a bunch Doug. Tried the EQ thing. Sounds a little better but I really need some trianing in audio engineering I think before I can be a good judge what sounds good.

Have to tried Acid 4.0b. Wow its awesome. I just got a little demo of it from my pal. It's great. So much easier to use than Protools. THink protools is for geniuses like you.

Well the more I learn the better. Trying to learn a bit of sound forge too but cant' get the manuals for Sound forge or Acid online.

Shameeta

[where02190]

Don't record in the same room as computer. If you have a closet or small room (bathrooms can work great) just hang a couple blankets for temporary deadening, run a long mic cable (mic cables can be run 100 or more feet with no audible loss) and hp cable to the room.

[shameeta]

I know that? I asked my network guy to try and put the cpu outside the room but he said the cable was not long enough. Anyway that's the last time I will do that. But there is still the issue of the echoing and noise on the recording I have aleady done there.

Thanks

Shameeta