Digital Voice Recorder help.

J.Mattson

J.Mattson

Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
2,518
I’ve got a digital voice recorder (Olympus WS-210s), I’ve been using it to make some recordings for work and its working decently with one exception, tons of white noise. Is there any (free) program I can use to edit the constant dull roar of static out? Is there any (cheap/free) modification I can do?
 
The noise is coming from somewhere. Microphone placement is always the first-fix on this sort of problem. Microphones are not magic; they are, in fact, very simple things.

A common source of white noise is surface noise. This is the "sound of the ocean" you hear when you hold a sea shell to your ear. You can demonstate it by just putting your ear up to a wall in a quiet room. Get the microphone up off of the table.

Most of these simple pocket recorders have agressive AGC, automatic gain control. This circuit will automatically increase the mic preamplifier gain when the signal is weak. More gain is always more noise. The fix here is to put the mic close to the source. Watch professional performers and you will see that they keep the mic just inches from their mouths. This is the first and most important step in better reproduction.
 
Unfortunately getting the recorder closer to the speaker isn’t an option. And I’m not entirely sure that the “sound of the ocean” noise is downing him out its just fanatically annoying to listen to on playback .
 
Is there anything I can do to “clean up” the recordings I already have?

I’ve been browsing forums that deal with stuff like this (mostly I’ve found people talking about how to make there garage band sound better), and nearly all of what they’re saying is way over my head.
 
According to the features list in Audacity, it can remove static or other constant background noise. It's freeware, available here.

A detailed description of the process can be found in the program's help menu (search for noise removal. It's under the "effects" heading.) It warns that distortion might result. Couldn't hurt to try, though.
 
I like Gollnicks response.

You can try a directional microphone if you can't get closer physically.

If you are setting it on a table it can amplify backround noise
Especially if it also has a fan on it like an overhead, or projector, or what not, that can be a source of noise too.
 
You are up against an immovable wall known as "information theory." There really is no magic program that can remove white noise and leave the signal unaffected. Any processing you do necessarily introduces distortion. Yes, there are algorithms which can reduce noise, but the more work they have to do, the more they distort the signal.

There is an ancient proverb which is true is audio recording: if pure water flows from the source, there is no need to filter it downstream.
 
proud2deviate said:
According to the features list in Audacity, it can remove static or other constant background noise. It's freeware, available here.

A detailed description of the process can be found in the program's help menu (search for noise removal. It's under the "effects" heading.) It warns that distortion might result. Couldn't hurt to try, though.
Click to expand...

I’ve been working with it for a few hours now and its sort of a good news bad news thing. On one hand I know about a lot of stuff I had never heard of this morning on the other hand I’m not entirely convinced that what I want is possible.
 
I don’t know if you use a smart phone but I use an app on my Droid for a voice recording that has an outstanding sound quality. It lets me switch between the Hz, bit rate and mono/stereo modes to adjust for the sound needs/quality.

Do you have any adjustments on your recorder that you can play with to see if affects anything? Switching to mono can help reduce the white noise.
 
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