Topic: Want to help me remove hiss?

[Sloan Simpson]

I've got a recording with tons of hiss I'd like to make better. The solo musician was barely amplified, and I had the levels way too low. I normalized it when I transferred it and don't have the original anymore 

What I'm asking is:

- Is it worth trying to fix this one?
- What tool to use?

I've tried fiddling around with Wavelab's DeNoiser plugin, as well as Izotope RX, but thought maybe I'd tap into the knowledge base here.  I uploaded a 30 second sample: http://www.sendspace.com/file/wuayfn

[F.O.Bean]

Bummer Sloan. I have tried WL's DeNoiser, but thats about all I have to add.

Best of luck

[F.O.Bean]

And I take it this is a 24-Bit WAV? If its a 16bit WAV, then IMO youre SOL

[Sloan Simpson]

And I take it this is a 24-Bit WAV? If its a 16bit WAV, then IMO youre SOL

It's 16bit  Thanks for checking it out.

[vanark]

Sloan, I've never used the Denoiser in Wavelab, but I just used the Noise Removal tool in Audacity and it decreased the hiss by 50-60% (to my ears) and definitely made it more listenable without impacting the music very much.

The general approach in Audacity is to find a part of the recording with just the noise (like the first second or two of you sample and use this as the noise profile.  Then apply the Noise removal to the rest of the recording.  I'm off to run some errands, but may fiddle with this a bit in Wavelab to see if it does a better job.

[Sloan Simpson]

Sloan, I've never used the Denoiser in Wavelab, but I just used the Noise Removal tool in Audacity and it decreased the hiss by 50-60% (to my ears) and definitely made it more listenable without impacting the music very much.

The general approach in Audacity is to find a part of the recording with just the noise (like the first second or two of you sample and use this as the noise profile.  Then apply the Noise removal to the rest of the recording.  I'm off to run some errands, but may fiddle with this a bit in Wavelab to see if it does a better job.

Oh cool!

[page]

To piggy back on vanark's remarks. I've finally had the sample, gear, and everything in one spot to play with it. Attached are the quick-n-dirty settings that I found I liked in RX. Noise reduction is an extremely sharp double edged sword so be careful.

The gist of this one is that's its largely broadband noise (and constant) which really makes for a nice setup for the learning mode, especially since it's just a single instrument. I specifically targeted the broadband above 2khz since (to me) that was the most noticeable aspect of it. So for a very minor loss in luster, it really just about stamps it out. Best of luck.

[stevetoney]

I'm not sure if it would be equally as effective on your issue, but I've used this same tool in Audition to fix alot of old cassette recordings that had hiss from many gens of cassette duplication and it was amazing how much mo' better the end product sounded. 

[it-goes-to-eleven]

I have not tried it, but I have wondered if parallel compression could be used in this sort of situation to boost only the parts that are above a certain threshold.

[Brian Skalinder]

Re applying a NR profile based on sampling a section of just noise:  back when I used Audition, I found this approach worked well enough...up to a point.  Just don't get too aggressive, or else the music will suffer.  I also found it worked better to apply the NR profile multiple times with a weaker setting, than a single pass with a stronger setting.  YMMV.

[Sloan Simpson]

Thanks everyone! This gives me a direction to go in.

[Sloan Simpson]

Oh yeah, it's Hamza El-Din if anyone was curious. He's not around anymore so I wanted to make it listenable 

[F.O.Bean]

Best of luck bro

[Brian E.]

I can run it through izotope.  I'll let you know.

[Brian E.]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/x2mazb

quick and dirty noise selection noise learn/remove.  Is that acceptable?

[Sloan Simpson]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/x2mazb

quick and dirty noise selection noise learn/remove.  Is that acceptable?

It's probably still too hissy to seed for others, but it would be an improvement for my personal listening at least. What settings did you use?

[Brian E.]

I just took a noise sample in an area with no guitar, then applied about a 50% filter and about 50% smoothing in RX izotope.

[Sloan Simpson]

I just took a noise sample in an area with no guitar, then applied about a 50% filter and about 50% smoothing in RX izotope.

Thanks

[Brian E.]

sure thing.  And that was just a couple minutes.  I'm sure you could do way more to it.  I'm just currently working on a Wilco show.

[page]

I just took a noise sample in an area with no guitar, then applied about a 50% filter and about 50% smoothing in RX izotope.

yeah, that's what I did with the screenshot on the last page, forgot to mention it.

RX can work on a dynamic sample and learn about changing noise and stuff, but I find their core NR works best with a provided sample to learn.

[Brian E.]

I just took a noise sample in an area with no guitar, then applied about a 50% filter and about 50% smoothing in RX izotope.

yeah, that's what I did with the screenshot on the last page, forgot to mention it.

RX can work on a dynamic sample and learn about changing noise and stuff, but I find their core NR works best with a provided sample to learn.

werd.