Date:         Sat, 11 Oct 2003 12:38:19 -0700
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Mike Richter <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: seeking advice
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At 03:08 PM 10/11/2003 -0400, sam stephenson wrote:

>We have a modest budget for software to help clean up the sound.  It's
>been recommended that we buy WaveLab to do this, but I'm not sure we need
>something that sophisticated in the short run.  None of us are engineers
>or technicians and we won't be doing any real restoration work until all
>content is identified.  Hearing spoken words more clearly would be very
>helpful.  We need something that is user-friendly and relatively
>affordable and that does not require a steep learning curve.  I'd like
>your thoughts and opinions for which software programs you might recommend
>for this purpose.  Is a Mac any better or easier to use for digital audio
>work than a PC?

 From your description, I suspect that you are not dealing with noisy tapes
so much as with material that needs equalization to make spoken voices
clearer against a modest background noise. If you have off-mike material to
deal with, more significant tools would be desired, but as it stands I'd
recommend using a tool such as Adobe Audition (formerly CoolEdit Pro). Its
many presets will get you in the right neighborhood for equalization and
for dynamic compression if needed.


Mike
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http://www.mrichter.com/