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precise_inspiration5DE6
precise_inspiration5DE6
Participant
October 12, 2017
Answered

Fixing streamed audio

  • October 12, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 291 views

I recorded some audio from an internet radio broadcast of sports game using OBS studio. The quality of the stream was not something that I could personally fix. The quality is good enough, but I still hear that "pixelated" background sound that you sometimes get with streaming radio on the internet, if that makes sense. It sounds like digital white noise. I'm not sure how else to describe it. I'm not sure if that's a product of the background noise from the crowd/audience, but I don't think it is.

Is there a way to fix this issue on my end with Audition?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer SteveG_AudioMasters_

I don't think so, I'm afraid. Any sort of noise like this which almost invariably modulates the actual audio is, to all intents and purposes, distortion. And with no reference to what the 'correct' sound would be, no fix is possible. Indeed, anybody creating an 'undistortion' plugin could charge an absolute fortune for it! But don't worry - it won't be happening.

The other possibility (and this is just as likely, if not more so) is that you have the artifacts of two things combined. Firstly the link will have been streamed at a relatively low bit depth, and it's also likely to have been treated to minimise the effects of this - possibly with a non-linear codec. This will make the background noise (already at quite a high level) 'pump'. The only thing that I can think of trying that might reduce this a bit, if it's not at normal speech level, would be noise-gating it (aka low level expansion). But that will only work if you've recorded your copy at a greater bit depth.

Generally these things never respond very well to treatment, unfortunately - you just have to accept them as what they are.

1 reply

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
October 13, 2017

I don't think so, I'm afraid. Any sort of noise like this which almost invariably modulates the actual audio is, to all intents and purposes, distortion. And with no reference to what the 'correct' sound would be, no fix is possible. Indeed, anybody creating an 'undistortion' plugin could charge an absolute fortune for it! But don't worry - it won't be happening.

The other possibility (and this is just as likely, if not more so) is that you have the artifacts of two things combined. Firstly the link will have been streamed at a relatively low bit depth, and it's also likely to have been treated to minimise the effects of this - possibly with a non-linear codec. This will make the background noise (already at quite a high level) 'pump'. The only thing that I can think of trying that might reduce this a bit, if it's not at normal speech level, would be noise-gating it (aka low level expansion). But that will only work if you've recorded your copy at a greater bit depth.

Generally these things never respond very well to treatment, unfortunately - you just have to accept them as what they are.

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