Sound forge 7

[Refreshe]

I have some really crappy recordings I would like to try and improve using sound forge 7. They have a little too much gain. I’m not sure if that’s a good way to describe it. Basically I just want to try and get them as loud, and as clear and clean sounding as possible. Can anyone give me any advice as to what tools I can use in sound forge 7 to accomplish this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[ds21]

Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by, getting them as loud as you can? and why is that "good"?

[Refreshe]

It's kind of a quiet recording. I want to get make louder with out it getting more fuzzy than it already is. It was recorded on a really crappy small tape recorder thingy. I just want to make it sound good, so I can give a copy to the people I jammed with. They will be impressed. I'm going to try and get a noise reduction plugin but I'm wondering if there is any thing else I can do to make it sound extremely clear?

[crankz1]

If you have access to Sound Forge 7 .... try using the noise gate to get rid of some low level noise then next in the effects chain add the Wave Hammer plugin to bring up the volume.

[Refreshe]

I'm having a hell of a time using that noise gate plugin. But I guess I will just try try again.

[Refreshe]

Well I was just messing around with one of my tracks in Sound Forge. I started getting the hang of the noise gate tool. It looks like i'm screwed. Some of the fuzzies have really high decible levels. I think what happened was the tiny little microphone that recorded the live jam sessions was blown out. Now when the songs are played back on monitor speakers, It sounds like the speakers are blown. But only part of the time, Sometimes things sound really clear. It's just when my band starts getting really loud, mainly the symbols crashing, the speakers sound like they are blown. Man that sucks, I really wish there was a way to fix this track, It's actually a really good song.

[Hornplayer]

Sounds to me like the original track is distorted. If so, there isn't much you can do to fix distortion.
John

[Refreshe]

Pretty much. But it's not really distortion. It's just a few crackels and pops here and there. The problem is they have a high decible level so the noise gate function is not eliminating the problem.

[ds21]

If you have the noise reduction plug-in try that from the examples I've hear it sould work pretty good if it's a constant noise like hiss or hum. I've only played around with it a little, but it seams easy to use.

[Refreshe]

It's more like a blown speaker sound every so often in certain high decible parts of the song. Oddly enough, I was messing around, and the flange wah wah effect seemed to have taken away the problem.

[M Havlen]

As was stated above, you are limited greatly by the quality of the original recording...with that said, try experimenting with the Parametric or Paragraphic eq in SF. ( Process > EQ > Paragraphic or Parametric.) Or try experimenting with the Wave Hammer feature. ( Effects > Wave Hammer > play with the Compressor/Volume Maximizer feature.) Good luck

[Refreshe]

You know I actually had tried messing with the EQ. That seemed to have helped get the bass a little louder. But theres this one annoying blown speaker sound that shows up on high decible parts of the song, and EQ just wouldn't get rid of it. I guess I will try messing with the wave hammer. With all of this computer technology you think someone would come up with something for restoring poor recordings. The wah wah effect gets rid of the annoying blown speaker sound, but in the process of doing so it muffles the rest of the track and makes things sound really muffled and crappy.

[ds21]

Originally Posted by Refreshe

You know I actually had tried messing with the EQ. That seemed to have helped get the bass a little louder. But theres this one annoying blown speaker sound that shows up on high decible parts of the song, and EQ just wouldn't get rid of it. I guess I will try messing with the wave hammer. With all of this computer technology you think someone would come up with something for restoring poor recordings. The wah wah effect gets rid of the annoying blown speaker sound, but in the process of doing so it muffles the rest of the track and makes things sound really muffled and crappy.

There is the "clipped peak restoration" plug-in you could try if you have it.

[Refreshe]

How exactly does that plug in work?

[MadAudio]

Basically it reshapes the peaks where clipping occurs so that it's below 0dB. I've used it a couple if times ( on other people's stuff - I never clip! ) and it seems to work pretty well.

[Refreshe]

I tried all of those plug-ins and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed.
However, in sonic foundry's defense my recordings are quite terrible.

[ds21]

Originally Posted by Refreshe

I tried all of those plug-ins and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed.
However, in sonic foundry's defense my recordings are quite terrible.

Well if you were not impressed, then I'd deffinently say your recordings are beyond repair.

[Joeybear]

No offense ds21, but his recordings aren't beyond repair. There's an audio restoration program called Diamond Cut 6 that'll clean up those bad recordings in no time.
It's a sophisticated (yet really easy to use) low priced alternative to the overpriced (and limited) Sony Noise Reduction plug-ins. It goes for $199
I've used this program for years to restore bad vinyl, bad tapes, even 78's.
It kicks butt.

www.diamondcut.com

Once you get all of that crap out of the way, use the mastering presets in SF to get the cleaned up results up to current standards.

[womoma]

hey man
yeah theres obviously a limit to how much you can improve a dodgy recording.
still tho. id go for noise reduction and eq [kinda mid range] ..

hiss is a bitch but u can tweak and tweak and when u compare to the origional recording youre always pleasantly supprised.
the distorted bits you might be able to replace [if u have a part which is exactly the same but not distorted] dont forget you can lower the volume on the distorted split second and mix in the new sound..

hope this helps.. if all else fails why not remix the song or indeed, ad to it, a few crisp drums, bass or pads might lift it..

best of luck my friend