Delete quiet audio sections (below -15db)

Question

Hello everyone,

This might be a very basic question, but unfortunately, I can't find the option in Audition: I have an audio with two speakers, both of their voices average at about -3db. Alongside the voices, there are also (unfortunately many) smaller background noises (like birds, etc.), all of which are around -15db or less.

I would like to silence everything in the audio that is quieter than -15db. Isn't there a simple way to do this?

Thank you very much!

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

This is what the Dynamics Processor (Effects>Amplitude and Compression>Dynamic Processing) will do, but I have to warn you - if you lose everything below -15dB with speech that peaks at -3dB you are going to lose a lot of the intelligibility of it and it won't sound good. There are two things you can try - the first is to start with the Noise Gate @20dB preset, but I'd suggest that segment 2 needs to be a little shallower, and you might also be better served if you use the Spline Curves option. But with all use of this process, experimenting with the actual material you have and adjusting it accordingly is the name of the game. And Normalise your audio to -1dB - all of the settings in the processor are based on audio that uses the entire dynamic range available.

The other thing is a little more radical. And that is to put some of your audio into the Adobe AI-based Speech Enhancer and see what it can do with it - the results might surprise you!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded