It goes without saying that all those who work with sound material often encounter the appearance of extraneous noise. You can’t get anywhere from this, unless you obviously use computer programs to create your own music tracks, in which the appearance of distortion and unwanted background is excluded initially. But when recording a “live” instrument, voice, when connecting playback or recording equipment (amplifiers, “combos”, speakers, microphones, etc.), whether you like it or not, noises will always appear.
What is meant by noise and unwanted effects: the most common situations
To begin, let's define the term itself. What do we mean by extraneous noise? In theory, speaking in a global sense, it is impossible to achieve absolute sound insulation today (unless, in a cosmic vacuum). That is, any sounds that surround us, theoretically, can be attributed to the category of noise. But in the case of sound recording or reproduction, extraneous noise means unwanted distortions associated with the operation of the connected equipment, some instruments that use electricity and even the pickup of the mains itself.
In the case of audio equipment, the appearance of noise can mainly be due to the presence of wires that are too long or not well shielded. When connecting electric guitars, as is the case with microphones, noises can appear because pickups and microphones themselves pick them up. Often the cause of noise is the very pickups in the mains with voltage drops or even capacitors that become unusable. Another problem is the appearance of interference in the speakers when microphones are connected, when a characteristic whistle is heard in the speakers. How to get rid of all such unwanted side effects and remove extraneous noise? To find out the optimal solution, we will proceed from each specific situation.
How to remove extraneous noise in the speakers?
Speakers and amplifiers are the easiest. Since the main cause of noise is considered to be improper shielding, loose contact or too long cables (which is pure physics), the first thing to do is to check the integrity of the wires, the presence of grounding, the connection density, etc.
It is also advisable to shorten the wires, if, of course, there is such an opportunity. In general, it is believed that the longer the wire used to connect, the higher the likelihood of extraneous noise. But this is far from the only option, since side effects can be found when connecting headphones (headphones), which, in theory, are as if closed from external influences.
How to get rid of extraneous noise in the headphones when connected to a computer?
In most cases, the same methods apply to the headphones that are used in situations with eliminating noise in open-type loudspeakers, but most often there is not only the problem of poor contacts, but also the mismatch of the input impedance of the socket or connector used to connect the headphones themselves. In this case, it is advisable to check for compatibility. If there is extraneous noise when connecting the headphones to the computer through the speakers, then you will have to test the speakers and the sound card connectors of the computer device. To achieve an optimal result, it is sometimes advisable to use noise reduction functions, which can be provided in sound amplifying equipment or are available in the form of a pre-installed tool kit in operating systems or software players.
How to remove microphone noise: the simplest technique
Now suppose that extraneous noise appears when you connect a microphone. Very often a strong whistle can be heard. This is due to the fact that the volume of the microphone recording level is too high in comparison with the overall volume of sound output to the speakers. In this situation, it is desirable to reduce it.
It is generally accepted that when recording from a microphone, the level of the input signal should not exceed half the total or maximum volume. But here it all depends solely on the model of microphone, sound card, speakers or studio monitors used.
The standard procedure for removing noise when recording vocals or live instruments using audio editors
With the simplest problems, clarity seems to be introduced. Now let's look at methods for eliminating side effects and noise when recording an instrument or voice in the studio or at home. To record vocals in any studio, a special room with appropriate soundproofing should be equipped. This is not discussed. But when you record the same electric guitar, you just won’t get rid of noise. To remove side effects, you can use special applications in the form of audio editors and remove noise with their built-in tools. You can use packages like Sound Forge, Adobe Audition, Audacity and the like. Virtual Studio Pro Tools is also good, but for an average user it may be too difficult to master, so we restrict ourselves to audio editors and try to remove the noise in the already recorded material. For example, take the program Cool Edit Pro, which was purchased from Syntrillium by Adobe and renamed Audition (the actions in both applications are practically the same).
In the program itself, you can use two methods, but one of the simplest is to use your own built-in filter.
Automatic deletion can be enabled through the effects menu with a choice of noise editing tools, which are located in the corresponding section. However, although this is a simple, but not the best way. It is possible to get rid of its use only from standard interference, such as interference from the mains, the creaking of vinyl records when digitizing sound, or something else. And what if you recorded the voice at home, and the microphone caught extraneous sounds from the street?
Manual noise removal based on noise standard
In this case, you can stretch the sound wave horizontally as much as possible, and then select a fragment in which there is noise but no voice. Based on it, the program will remove interference on its own. But it’s impossible to foresee everything!
To get the most complete picture, it is better to separately record the sound track with noise (the longer, the better), save it in a separate file, and then load it as a noise template using the Noise Reduction toolkit, as shown in the image above.
Video Noise Removal
As for removing noise from the video, the easiest way is to use a small, but quite powerful and interesting utility called Movavi.
In it, you need to upload your video, double-click on the audio track in the timeline, and then on the audio settings tab, select the standard noise removal item or adjust the level using a special noise reduction slider.
Note: in the same way, you can also use track editing in any modern audio editor, since almost all known programs of this type support video import and allow you to work not only with sound but also with the image itself (for example, if necessary, you can even adjust the storyboard as a level FPS).
You can also extract audio from a video, edit it, and then replace the original track in the video with noise-free material.
Epilogue
These are the simple and simplest methods that allow you to easily get rid of all kinds of unwanted interference or noise that may appear in each situation. By and large, the universal technique can be called the use of professional or semi-professional audio editors, since with their help you can get rid of absolutely all interference, and initially do some additional steps to ensure proper sound insulation is not required at all.