Hey Mac users — have you ever needed to remove background noise in an audio recording? In today’s posting, we will take our readers through the steps of using our favorite free, open-source audio editing software aka Audacity to accomplish just that by applying a Noise Removal effect.
Looking for Setup instructions? We’ve got you covered! Our recent Audacity for Mac OS X Installation Tutorial includes setting up LAME as well!
For today’s walk-through, we’ll be applying the Noise Removal effect using Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode) for Mac OS X.
Step 1: MP3 Download
Before one can edit their AudioAcrobat recording in Audacity, the first step is to make sure that the file resides on the hard drive of the computer on which editing will be performed.
1. Login to your AudioAcrobat account
2. Click Audio (L)
3. Click the Title of the Audio you wish to Download
4. Click Download Audio
Looking for Expanded Steps? Try HERE.
Step 2: Open in Audacity
Now that the file our readers wish to edit is on their computer’s hard drive, they will want to open the file with Audacity. Right-click the file and choose Open With and select Audacity from the list. Don’t see it listed? Open Audacity from the Applications folder in the dock. Open the software and click File >> Open, selecting the audio to be edited.
Once the file opens in Audacity, our readers will see something like this (the red box outlines the ‘noise’ we wish to remove in today’s walk-through):
Step 3: Highlight, Remove Noise + Export
It really is that simple. Click and drag with the mouse cursor or for those keyboard enthusiasts out there use Shift + Left / Right arrow keys to make a selection.
For a Noise Removal effect, our readers will want to make sure to select the area which encompasses the intended duration for which the effect will be applied.
After highlighting the desired section of the audio, our readers should see something similar to the following:
Here our readers will want to select Effect >> Noise Removal as seen below:
Immediately after selecting the Noise Removal effect, the following pop-up window will appear:
For specifics on what each value found here does, we recommend checking out the wiki and this forum.
After applying the Noise Removal effect, our readers will see the ‘noise’ in the selected area dissipate:
When satisfied, select File >> Export to save the newly edited version and head over to AudioAcrobat in an internet browser to begin the upload process.
Here we’ve walked through the process of opening our file and applying a Noise Removal effect using Audacity for Mac OS X. Did you get stopped somewhere in the process? Make sure you have LAME correctly setup then shampoo, rinse and repeat the steps listed above. Success will be yours!
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