Software to perform noise-cancelling when recording from laptop microphone?

Ynot Irucrem · 05-27-2012, 03:51 AM

Hi,

I'm using Kubuntu 12.04 on a HP Pavillion dv6 laptop. In Windows, there is a utility or driver function/setting (not sure, as the Windows install has shat itself so I can't check) that transparently performs noise-cancelling on all microphone input, which is very handy as it gets rid of most of the noise from the laptop itself - fan noise and electronic noise. I was wondering if there was some way to do the same thing in Linux?

Thanks in advance.

teckk · 05-27-2012, 10:36 AM

You can look at the -af (audio filter) section of mplayers manual.

mplayer -af sinesuppress, equalizer, comp, pan, resample
Are a few that may help.

Code:

sinesuppress[=freq:decay]
       Remove a sine at the specified frequency. Useful to 
       the 50/60Hz noise on low quality audio equipment. 
       only works on mono input.
          <freq>
               The frequency of the sine which should be r
               Hz) (default: 50)
          <decay>
               Controls the adaptivity (a larger value wi
               filter adapt to amplitude and phase changes 
               smaller value will make the adaptation slower
               0.0001). Reasonable values are around 0.001.

Code:

EXAMPLE:
   mplayer -af equalizer=11:11:10:5:0:-12:0:5:12:12 media.avi
         Would amplify the sound in the upper and lower frequency
         region while canceling it almost completely around 1kHz.

You can use filters with ffmpeg too if you want to capture the mics input with it.

jefro · 05-27-2012, 12:49 PM

The only way I have done it was to record to audacity some few moments of background noise before I play. Then I later use those few seconds for noise removal tool. I know there are many high end windows and maybe some free windows apps too that might be used in wine but most of the live or real time audio is too much for even a high end system. Dedicated audio hardware takes the system load off but only a few are really good on linux.

A better mic and a better room is the solution really. Any electronic way degrades the sound too much.

Depending on the sound device you have, it may have a software way to cancel hum or noise.