Apr 20th, 2016 - Category: Sound
Bad audio seems to be everywhere these days. From technical webinars recorded on cheap headsets to videos recorded using a smartphone’s built-in microphone, there are some truly bad examples. Problems can include clipping, distortion, background noise, loudness issues, buzz, hiss, and poor room “ambience” just to name a few.
The best solution of course, is to start with a good recording. Make sure presenters use a decent headset or add a clip-on lavalier microphone. Sometimes though, previously recorded audio must be fixed and that’s where iZotope’s Audio Cookbook can help. I’ve used their RX Audio Editor for many years to restore old recordings, but it took quite a bit of time and experimentation to learn the art. The Audio Cookbook provides Recipes to repair common audio problems based on a step-by-step approach. For example, to reduce background noise from dialog recordings, the recipe starts with corrective equalization, then explains how to use the Dialog option for the De-Noise module, ending with suggestions on how to preview various Reduction settings. All-in-all, a wonderful explanation of a complex process.
If you’re interested, their RX products are on sale until April 28th for around 30% off. Their “Plug-in Pack” is an especially good deal for only $99. I have no professional relationship to iZotope, but think highly of their solutions. After 20+ years of working with dynamic signal analyzers and acoustics, this is high praise.
By Deasington (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons