Deleting Silence help needed

[wheeler8807]

I can't figure out why this file won't get rid of silence there are a few pauses that are roughly 15 seconds long that the diagnostics tab won't pic up for some reason

that's what I keep seeing, and this is what the waveform looks like currently. please help, i don't want to have to manually edit out all the silences.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

It's almost certainly getting confused by the idea that audio has to be above 0dB for 25ms before it's audio. You need to alter that setting! If you select your file and use 'find levels', what figures does it suggest?

[Bob Howes]

Steve is likely spot on.  I don't think any of your audio reaches 0dB (and it's quite right that it shouldn't).  Zoom in to the waveform to work out what level your periods of silence are then define audio as being anything a few dB more than that.

[wheeler8807]

that's what I get when I use find levels for some reason, I don't want to mess up the sound.

[Bob Howes]

Well, that's a strange one.  I've never used "find levels" myself but just tried it on a recent voice over I recorded.   The settings it picked for me was that audio was anything above -63dB and silence was below -69dB.  I should say this was recorded in a professional studio so those are pretty low levels--but taking you own reading of the level of silence then making audio 6dB above would be a good start.

As you're working in Waveform view, you haven't made a permanent change until you hit save up to that point you can always hit Edit/Undo--and if you want to do a few versions to see what sounds best, just use Save As and change the name for each version.

You do have me curious about what might make the Find Levels come up with such  a weird answer.  Maybe something in your file?

[wheeler8807]

that's what it says when I find the levels, I'm confused.

[Bob Howes]

That's why I suggest NOT using the automatic "Find Levels" and enter them manually.  There must be something slightly strange about your file--though I'm mystified as to what that might be.

Instead, zoom in vertically on a section of your silence and note what the "loudest silence" (if that makes sense) is.  Add 3dB or so and manually enter that as your definition of silence.  Add another 6dB and make that your definition of audio.  Those figures should get you pretty close but, if anything goes wrong, just don't save the result.

Bob

[wheeler8807]

Another week which means I am still trying to find a balance on trimming the silences out. Two of us had to share a mic due to another person coming on the show. I don't want to cut out any audio because it's quiet.

[wheeler8807]

[wheeler8807]

its doing this again automatically.

[wheeler8807]

how much do I need to zoom in vertically? the most it will let me do is -129.

[Bob Howes]

That'll depend on what your noise floor is.   -129 should be way more than enough.   All you need to be able to do is see what levels the noise floor is at as opposed to the simple straight line you probably see in ordinary view.

Here's a screen grab of a voice over file I've been working on.  This is enough zoom for me to see that, if I specify noise as "Below -66dB" that should cover it.  In this situation I could define audio as "above -60dB" (or, frankly a lot higher than that but it would be safe.)

Hope this helps.

[wheeler8807]

mine doesn't look like that when I zoom in, this is what I get.

[ryclark]

That picture really is 'silence' but unlikely to be from anything that you have actually recorded since even the best audio interface and mic will always show something similar to Bob's image.

[wheeler8807]

I silenced some areas of this episode while I was cutting it together and cut some areas out.

[Bob Howes]

As ryclark implies, even with the best equipment, that TOTAL silence is impossible.  A great quiet mic in a really quiet studio and a really good mic pre amp and A to D Converter might get you a noise floor into the -90s but that's hard to achieve.

When you say you cut some areas out or silenced them, is that EVERY gap in the audio or just some?  If just some, you have to find an area where you've left some noise and do you zooming in on that.  Otherwise, if your areas of silence are all like the one in your photo, you can just about make up your own numbers.  You'd have a wide range of safe settings...say define silence as anything below -70dB and audio anything above -66 dB.  This should let you delete all the gaps.

However, if you have any areas where there IS noise, then zoom in on one of those spaces and follow my instructions above.

One slight caution.  If you've cut your cues really tightly then delete all silence you have to watch out for your speech sounding un-natural with no pauses.  You can alleviate this a bit with the timing numbers in the set up for the delete silence.  However, if it was me and I wanted a natural sound I might just do all this naturally, creating the gaps by ear.  You'll be surprised how fast you can do this--and sometimes manual is still better than automatic.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bob+Howes  wrote

As ryclark implies, even with the best equipment, that TOTAL silence is impossible.  A great quiet mic in a really quiet studio and a really good mic pre amp and A to D Converter might get you a noise floor into the -90s but that's hard to achieve.

You might almost get there with a really good mic in a sealed box in an empty studio, but when you put a person anywhere near an open mic, you'll be well above that!

[Bob Howes]

My non-existent career as a voice artist disappeared when I had a mechanical heart valve installed.   It's not normally noticeable but when I go into any really quiet room (like a studio for example) I tick like a car turn signal.