# How can I clean up this audio file? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 5, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252 "2005-09-05T22:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XP39C\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/91b2a8/32.png) [@XP39C\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XP39C_2)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/1 "2005-09-05T22:30:25Z")
I have an [audio file](http://media.putfile.com/Qualstar-Credit-Union) with some hissing and crackling in the background. Is there any way to fix this using Adobe Premier Pro 1.5? If not, what program would I need to get? Thanks. XP39C^2 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/2 "2005-09-05T22:35:49Z")
You could try [Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net) - it’s an open-source audio editing/mixing application and is pretty damn good; it has a noise filter - the way it works is that you first select as large a bit of the file that is supposed to be silent(i.e. consists entirely of noise) as you can find, then click ‘get noise profile’ in the noise removal filter - this teaches it what sort of things you’re wanting to remove - then you select the entire track and apply the filter. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/3 "2005-09-05T22:36:50Z")
In fact if your link worked, I’d try it for you, to save you installing a bit of software that might not work for you. ---
**Author:** ![XP39C\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/91b2a8/32.png) [@XP39C\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XP39C_2)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/4 "2005-09-06T01:29:30Z")
Hmmm… I can’t seem to get your link to work, either. Could I just email the clip to you? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/5 "2005-09-06T07:30:00Z")
Sure; if you email it to [themangetout@yahoo.com](mailto:themangetout@yahoo.com), I’ll take a look at it tonight. Dunno what happened to my link; it should have been: [http://audacity.sourceforge.net](http://audacity.sourceforge.net) ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/6 "2005-09-06T08:30:23Z")
That is going to be hard to fix. If Mangetout doesn’t have any luck with it I can try with Protools. Let me know. Noise gates and filters work pretty well unless the background noise is at the same volume or higher than the desired sound. That clip has a ton of noise and it is loud compared to the voice. I haven’t tried fixing anything with that much noise using ProTools yet. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/7 "2005-09-06T08:51:43Z")
I managed to download the file in the end; [here](http://www.gurman.co.uk/Stuff/cleaned_audio.mp3%22%5B/url) is a cleaned-up version of it - most of the words are audible now. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/8 "2005-09-06T08:53:48Z")
Grr… Dunno what’s going wrong with my links lately. fixed link ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/9 "2005-09-06T08:55:21Z")
BTW, please let me know when you’ve downloaded a copy of that file, so I can delete it from my web space. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/10 "2005-09-06T09:03:05Z")
Holy schnoinkies, that is way cleaner. I might have to d/l Audacity. I don’t know if Protools would clean it up that much. Slee ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-clean-up-this-audio-file/320252/11 "2005-09-06T09:24:13Z")
The noise filter that comes with Audacity is quite a clever one, but works especially well with audio material such as this - where there are substantial parts that are supposed to be silent (and so consist entirely of noise) - it makes training the filter so much more effective.