A question for Audiophiles!

[RCBH928]

1) Can any one tell me about a software that would merge a long audio file (1hr) cut into 10min pieces ? like make them into 1 file?

2) Any one can tell me about a piece of software that will highly enhance a recording that has a low voice volume with high amount of noise? Its a recorded speech/lecture but its really bad.

[AppleQueso]

1) I think most audio editors could do that actually. You'd just import each file manually, make sure everything is lined up like it's supposed to, and then export as a new file.

2) There won't be some magic program that would fix that, but I imagine a noise gate, some compression, and a bit of EQing could help a lot.

[Ivo]

I'm pretty sure you can try Audacity for chopping up the file, cleaning up the audio will be trickier... I recommend you change the title of the thread, like

"audio editing software recommendation needed"
or
"Need help with cleaning up an audio recording"
may attract the right type of attention.

Ivo.

[turbolegs]

Audacity will be fine for splicing things together, but unless you have experience in 'cleaning up' recordings it will be very difficult as Audacity doesn't offer real-time application of plugins.

I would recommend something like Kristal:

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

It works like most pro DAW's, its free and you'll be able to put something together pretty quickly.

AppleQueso has described the best way to clean your audio up, I would look for a dedicated audio production forum for some beginner tips.

[RCBH928]

1) I think most audio editors could do that actually. You'd just import each file manually, make sure everything is lined up like it's supposed to, and then export as a new file.

2) There won't be some magic program that would fix that, but I imagine a noise gate, some compression, and a bit of EQing could help a lot.

I am not sure what EQing is , I have 0 audio editing experience, but it doesnt have to be perfect just clear enough to to be understandable and as less noise as possible.

Isnt there like an Audio filter that makes sound clearer , not necessarily perfect?

[Metal Jesus]

You are going to have to do two things: use Normalization to raise the over all level and then use an EQ option to sweep through the frequencies to notch out the hiss and ground floor noise. Depending on where that was recorded, it could be street noise, a fan moving air in the background, electrical hum from an ungrounded outlet, etc...

Also, if the speaker goes from speaking softly to loudly, you might apply a bit of Compression to smooth it all out. Hope that helps!

[Metal Jesus]

Oh yeah, and I 2nd Audacity for this task. I use it all the time and it works great considering it's free. If you have access to Sound Forge that's even better and more professional.

[Anapan]

Agreed with Metal Jesus completely.

As mentioned Audacity can do it all, but since I'm used to Sourdforge I'll expand on what has been said a bit - how I'd do it.
First, use the Normalizer - get the volume to an acceptable level - either the peak volume or set it to speech level if that doesn't degrade it too much.
Sound Forge's "Noise Reduction" plugins could fix it a lot, they're specifically designed for this task. Keep the preview on and try out the presets in them to see what can be done to a sample - find the best preset, then tweak the settings for your file until it's improved somewhat.
Next, using the Spectral Analysis to visualize the audio, find the bandwidth in hz that's got noise in it - there should be 2 ranges - the speech you want to keep, and the noise you want to eliminate (or possibly one range which you want to keep and the rest is noise...).
Use the Parametric Equalizer to remove frequency ranges until the audio is improved. Keep a particularly bad portion of the file selected, and slowly change the EQ while listening to what's happening)
Again, as mentioned, some compression with a soft-knee will make the final product more pleasant to listen to.

[Redifer]

Someone recently asked me how to reduce street noise from their video. There's really not much you can do. For a lecture I imagine that you used the on-camera mic or a stand-alone recorder that was not tied into the venue's microphone system. There's likely a lot of reverb and hollowness to the sound. Can't really fix that, either. One thing that might offer a very slight improvement is to re-record the audio into a microphone as it plays from your speaker. Hang a damp (not wet) towel between the speaker and the recorder (not kidding). This can help get rid of the reverb and ambiance but your audio will still suck... it'll just suck a teeny bit less. Maybe. But reducing reverb and the like in a recording is next to impossible because the frequency you want to reduce is the same as the speaking voice.

[RCBH928]

Thanx for everyone's help, it helped me a lot. I learned something new