476- BONUS- Noise removal suggestions in Podcasting

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In this episode of the Podcast Reporter, we discuss a post from the recent buzzsrpout.com blog that delivers suggestions, tips and also screen capture images on how to reduce noise using the Audacity application. This is mainly done using the Noise Removal feature in the program — and this article probably has value for new and aspiring podcasters (as the older veterans of podcasting have already used this feature and have either standardized on it or have chosen other means to include in their workflow).

Now, for this podcaster, I was first alerted to this feature of Audacity in 2005-2006 by Paul Colligan in his earlier podcast show, Podcast Tools (now podfaded). And I have used this feature for reducing the noise level in my episodes — as it seems good enough for me. And even with the help of tutorials from Steve Stewart about Audacity, the removal or diminishing of noise can be done even better, the neophyte podcaster can find value in reducing the amount of noise in the raw capture of a wav file before exporting it to mp3 format for the final episode. In fact, I myself found great value in the tutorial by Steve to sharpen the skills delivered to me over the internet from someone who is a professional audio editor.

Now, this recent blog post in buzzsprout.com/blog gives a summary of the tips for removing background noise in your recording, along with a 4 minute-20-second video:

First, the items covered are the standard “preventions” in creating unnecessary background noise;
- optimize your recording space;
- turn down the gain on your mic;
- use a dynamic mic;
- minimize computer fan noise.
Then once the “preventative” measures are taken, then the three steps are promoted to remove the noise in the Audacity feature called “Noise Removal”:
- Get a noise sample
- Apply noise reduction; and
- Tweak the settings by adjusting certain levels; then
- Use the PREVIEW button to test the noise quality resulting from the tweaks.
You are also given some further thoughts and resources to give you more information and suggestions about noise quality and improvement of your audio.

We hope that these suggestions can be of value to the new and aspiring podcaster, so that the quality of the audio can be greatly improved — thus allowing your listeners to enjoy a good level of sound as they listen to your message and hear the VALUE of your episode and message of your podcast show.

Thank you for your attention.