using the Noise Reduction feature

G

guttadaj

New member
Cool Edit 96 here! Gotta love the freebies! :D

I'm transferring some tapes to CD. I'd like to get rid of the tape hiss. Have any of you used the Noise Reduction feature in Cool Edit with much success? Also, is this how you use it: play a blank section of the tape so you just record the hiss noise, select it, choose the Noise Reduction feature, and save that as a Profile. Then, open the actual song file, select the whole thing, choose Noise Reduction, load that Profile, and hit OK....? Are the results decent, or are there other methods for "cleaning" up signals from tape that anyone could recommend?

Thanks! :)
-Jeff
 
yeah - thats how you use Noise Reduction. It may not always give you the best results...usually affects the actual signal you want as well. You could try listening to the "noise" and adjusting the NR parameters until all you hear is noise and no actual signal. Also - if its just tape hiss you're trying to get rid off, the hiss reduction routine may work better than noise reduction. Either way, you're going to be degrading the signal in some way...just depends on how much you're willing to sacrifice for a better sound.
 
Hmmm, do you think I'd be better off trying to use a parametric EQ to sweep the freqs and make the cuts myself at the freqs that seem to be contributing the nasties? I guess I will try both, but I'm wondering if others have been down this road before. Thanks for the response.
 
hmm...i've never tried parametric eq for noise reduction, but anything is worth a shot. i think you might find that the hiss has a very broad (probably high end) spectrum and "cutting" that out in the eq may severely degrade the signal...not sure though since i've never tried. good luck!
 
I like to use the noise reduction and then use the parametric EQ to fix the frequencies that have gotten too muddy sounding.
 
I don't know whether this feature is in the version you have, but the later ones allow you to select the percentage of noise reduction so you don't throw out the sonic baby with the dirty bathwater.
 
Unless you are in a forensic situation, don't overdo noise reduction - the default 40dB reduction (in most versions) is way over the top - 10dB is more realistic to avoid severe corruption of the wanted audio.
 
Thanks for the tips. :) Yeah, I'll be mindful of not overdoing the noise reduction. Cool Edit 96 does give you a Noise Reduction level slider, so I'll play around with that, most likely keeping it close to 0, which is the lowest setting and does actually do some reduction according to the Help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top