Quick & Dirty Audio Cleanup?

[egparadigm]

Hi People,

I have an audio conversation which I want to transcribe. Unfortunately the quality is poor and there's lots of background noise and distortion. What's the best way to clean it up enough to be comprehensible?

I am using Audacity at the moment. It took me a long time to work out though that the treble needed to go down and bass up ? that's how inexperienced I am with audio ? I can't necessarily diagnose what's wrong with the recording.

How do I diagnose the problems?

Many thanks.

[FelixofMars]

Isn't there a noise removal tool in Audacity? You will have to play with it but I think you can selectively remove the high and low noise. I might be wrong, its been ages since I used it TBH.

[Lyris]

I have a copy of Izotope RX. It's so effective, it's ridiculously fun to use for that reason. I've rescued interviews with this before and also use a lot to clean up noisy film transfers. If you want me to clean it up, drop me an email at lyris1 AT gmail DAWT com.

[egparadigm]

Hmm... I see they offer a demo on their website. I will send you a PM if it's difficult to use.

[Lyris]

I'm not sure if the demo can save though? Maybe I'm wrong! It's not too hard to use.

[egparadigm]

I've tried it and it seems to have done a pretty good job. It got rid of 90% of the noise and didn't distort the vocals.

It's not a problem that it doesn't save really, because I don't need a copy of the fixed audio, just being able to play it is good enough.

Do you know how to increase amplification on there? I can use my amp, but then I get scary loud system sounds.