Can Audacity fix or improve bad audio like this
 

hey LQ

I have an audio file that is very low. It's hard to describe, so I found this video on youtube to describe how my audio sounds like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3V0k...85EB5&index=24

I'm guessing the bass, midrange or treble needs adjustments or maybe something else.

Can audacity fix or improve audio that sounds like this video? Any help or suggestions would help. Thx

PS: Is there a correct term to describe audio sounding this way. I've used keywords like low humming muffled and etc on my google search.

Audacity could likely help it. I doubt anything could "fix" it. It sounds like a bad TV rip.

You would need some way to get the audio out, then put it back in, as Audacity is strictly audio.

Thanks frank

Yes, ffmpeg can separate the audio and merge it back. But I don't want the video I was using it as an example on how bad an audio I have sounds like. I did try the equalizer from audacity to improve the audio but it had little effect. I guess it is hard to fix some things when you don't have the original source.

Anyway, thanks for replying

You can't put back in what wasn't there in the first place.

I guess all you can do is try to paint over the flaws.

I had completely forgotten Mr. Belvedere. Thanks for a memory.

That person has all six seasons of Mr Belvedere in his youtube channel and only a few have bad audio. It's good to find old shows because they were great.

There are (at least) two different things wrong with the audio in that YouTube video. First is the muffled sound, which is to say that the high frequencies are weak. This, by itself, would be correctable by bass, midrange or treble adjustments, or an equalizer. The second problem is the hiss (white noise). If you simply turn up the treble to correct the high frequency range, the hiss will sound even worse.

So you will probably need to try "Noise Removal" first. See if you can reduce the hiss without distorting the voice/music signal too much. Then correct the bass/midrange/treble.

You said the YouTube video is just an example. If your audio clip doesn't have that much hiss, that is, if it is muffled without the hiss, it will be easier to improve the sound quality.

If you want Mr Belvedere, buy the DVDs. If for some reason you dont/wont/cant pay for the DVDs, try finding the shows somewhere else. D/ling from youtube is just as 'illegal' as d/ling from some filehost, and you might as well get a decent copy. Why try to fix some dodgy TV rip when there will be DVD rips around........

where in my post did I say I was downloading these videos?

I don't think you can use Audacity to work in streaming mode. You'd have to download either the audio for both video and audio and then try to work on it.

There are some very advanced tools to work with audio and video but only a few are opensourced. Audacity can only use filters that have been made but generally the tools need to be used on good quality source. You could in fact modify very short sections at at time to fix or try to fix the quality. The process would take weeks or more.

Assuming you mean that your sound file is quiet like the clip you might want to try gain also this basically amplifies the sound in the file. Of course it also amplifies the noise so Beryllos's recommendation of noise removal is a good one.