VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[sandyg]

Don:
Thanks for the advice. I've followed it and would love to send you, and any other folks that are listening, samples of the unfiltered version, the filtered version using Initial Noise filter, and the filtered version using the clipboard you suggested (not fully satisfied) followed by the Initial Noise reduction on the same recording. Nothing seems to clarify everything. But, the clipboard and the Initial Noise filter together seem to completely deaden the spaces between the sounds.

I've also spoken with my friend who owns the styrofoam company and he's suggested that I find 2nd hand office partions. You know, those dividers that separate cubicles in offices. He said that he'd be happy to mount poly-urethane squares on one side and that should solve the problem.

I'm hoping that by using this concept of sound deadening, in addition to using the clipboard, as you've suggested, I'll have totally solved the problem.

I'd love to hear your response to this and, if you'd provide me with an e-mail, I'll send you the three sound tests.

My Best,

Sandy G

[Hart]

Sandy,

I've read elsewhere that office partitions work pretty well. As long as you don't plan on moving them too much (since they are a bit heavy) they should do just fine. You'll want to be careful with your friend's foam product to make sure it adequately absorbs all needed frequencies. Not really sure how to advise you on this as it goes over my head but it could be a potential pitfall.
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[Don G.]

This is far from the perfect solution, but it has served me fairly well for the past few years. It's a variation on Dave Christi's theme, if you will. I used a 2' x 4' piece of pegboard (sturdy, but not too heavy) and cut it into four 1' x 2' pieces. I bought 8 one-square foot pieces of Acoustic foam and glued them onto the pegboard. Then I bought some of those clips for holding foam core board together and used them to "hinge" the pieces of pegboard so I can fold the partition up and toss it under my desk during non-recording times.

This setup works for me because I do the majority of my recording sitting down at a desk. I imagine you could just set this contraption on a higher table if you prefer to stand while recording.



Good luck!

[Deirdre]

Very nifty!
I like the compact aspect of putting it away, too.
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[Hart]

Don,

That looks great! I bet those clips work out much better than the duct tape I've been using.

Looks like I'm about to buy a whole crap ton of 2" foam off craigslist. I may have to play with the spare some.
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[Don G.]

Well, I do tend to be on the frugal side, as witnessed by my homemade pop filter.

Another nice thing about those clips is that it allows enough of a gap between the pieces to permit the mic boom to go between the middle two, and it leaves room for the foam pieces to just meet each other when set up into that semi-octagonal position.

[donrandall]

Sandy, I would be happy to listen to the audio tracks that you have, go ahead and send them to me at my webmail address which is: don@theradiohelper.com and I will play around and see if I can do anything.

I would prefer to have a copy of the audio that has not yet been processed by noise filter or anything else - and I would need a second or so of room noise without any other extraneous noises in it. Based on what you have stated here and without yet hearing enough to know for sure, I would speculate that you probably have so much noise that the filter can only clean it up by also trashing the actual content (your voice) that you want to preserve.

Wanna try some stuff? Make sure that you make a copy of your original track - then put the original back in the file. Now work on the copy. That way, if you make a mess of something, you still have the original available.

Try setting the "Scale" setting at 50% and filter it and see what happens. You will probably not clean all the extraneous noise as much as you need to, but you may be able to avoid trashing the signal (your voice). Next, try using some noise gating and downwrd expansion - don't bother with any of the presets, they will not give you any useable results. Open the "Expander/Compressor" and then open the presets box - we'll take one of the presets and make some adjustments that should be helpful. Instead of an actual noise gate, lets try some downward expansion, which is a bit less aggressive and has less tendency to sound like someone is throwing a switch on and then off and then on again.

Once you click on one of the preset noise gates, make the following adjustments:

"Multiplier" at -6. You may also try -8 if the lighter setting is not enough.
On this one, the lower the number, the less effect.

"Threshold" at -40. Try higher or lower setting if not satisfied.
On this one, the lower the number, the greater the effect.

"Attack" and "Release" should be set at .020.

Make sure "Expander" is checked. Make sure "Anticipate Attack" is checked.

If you would prefer to use a noise gate instead of downward expansion, then somply adjust the "Threshold" to -60. You may like it better, you may not. A little experimentation is always a good idea.

[donrandall]

Sandy - I pulled your audio file from Banksey's website and recorded it.

Keep in mind that you had already tried the noise filter and then converted it to mp3 in order to send to Banksey. I then recorded it and it then became a wav once again - although the digital information that was stripped away in the process of converting to mp3 is gone for good and can not be restored. At this point, a lot of digital information has been discarde and no longer exists and can not be manipulated in an effort to restore the audio. I was able to make some improvement with what was left.

I took the audio and was able to remove what little bit of ambient noise there was, either room (doubtful) or soundcard (possible). I left a couple of seconds of silence at the front end which precedes the voice - the silence is where the ambient noise was to be heard in the raw file before I denoised it.

I then took a sample of the tinkling noise that was (presumably) an artifact of your earlier denoising. I then saved that and selected the "Use Clipboard" setting and ran the filter. The next step was to use a noise gate - I adjusted to -45db with a multiplier of -60db. I then used the graphic equalizer and reduced the 60 Hz band by around 6db and increased the 2400 Hz and 6000Hz bands slightly. I will post a link that will take you to an FTP site where I parked the resulting file.

http://www.box.net/public/nfag6yzd88

[sandyg]

Sorry I've been away for these few days. A family situation took precedent. I'm back now and I need to get squared away.

Don, I sent you three samples of my room being totally silent, per your suggestion, and with the sound of my voice following each silent period on each MP3. Each of these had various noise reductions applied. One MP3 was totally unfiltered throughout.
I can hear a noticeable difference. Yet, I believe I still hear a slight residual "reverberation" to my voice. The vocal quality just doesn't sound like pure voice. Maybe, it's just me, but I don't think so.

Anyway, I don't recall what I did at the time but, in following your instructions from one of your previous e-mails, where you speak of using the "clipboard", the sequence doesn't seem to work.
Here's what I mean:

When "Noise Reduction" is opened, the "Use Clipboard" option is greyed out making it unusable. I know I must have done something right previously, but I don't recall what at this time. Please refresh my memory, if you will. Anyone can jump in here too, if they wish. All comments gratefully accepted.

FYI...My styrofoam setup, with acoustic tiles, has been ordered and I hope to have it in about a week. Perhaps, after all, this will be the definitive solution.

My gratitude,

Sandy G

[donrandall]