eliminating scratchy parts of speech

Report · Jun 24, 2020

I am "mastering" an audio book and sometimes the narrator has these really scratchy/buzzy sounds that I can't get rid of. I'm new to Audition, but I figured out how to highlight the problem and run it through the click/pop eliminator. This works about 30% of the time. I thought it was a spike in volume, but it isn't. When I zoom in and look at the vocal curve, you can see that it's not smooth but very jagged. Is there a way to fix this? Here is a screen shot of a section that has been run through the pop eliminator but is still making that scratch sound. Any advice would be so helpful!

Report · Jun 24, 2020

It would be a lot easier to figure out what might be a good solution if you could post a wav file with a couple of examples of the sound that haven't been treated at all. Screen grabs are all very well, but they don't translate into actual sound, and are accordingly of limited value. Whilst that certainly looks 'raspy', I can't tell how raspy it really is.

It's very unlikely that the click/pop eliminator will do anything to this, as that is designed to look for a particular characteristic of a waveform, and generally, spoken words don't contain it. I can think of several possibiliries, but really would need to hear a couple of representative samples first.

Report · Jun 25, 2020

Oh my gosh, thank you for replying!!!! Okay, here is a screen shot of several of these buzzy/scratchy bits and another shot of one of those bits zoomed in. The part I can't figure out is even if I go in and individually delete the spikes, the scratchiness and buzz is still in there, like it's not even a volume thing. Sorry for my lack of Audition vernacular, I'm new to this product. Thank you so much for your help!!!

Report · Jun 25, 2020

Still need some audio...

Report · Jun 25, 2020

Hi Steve,

I just made a new post with the audio file. Sorry, I didn't understand at first. I hope you can see the file? I couldn't figure out how to add it to this thread. Thank you so much for your help!

Report · Jun 25, 2020

Hello,

Attached is a .wav audio file that illustrates the problem I'm having. Again, I run the little bit through the pop elimination process, but it doesn't get rid of it. Setting the hard limited doesn't get rid of it, either.

Thank you for your help!!!

~Lara

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Unfortunately the forum software decided to remove the link to your file when I concatenated the posts - not your fault, obviously, it's the stupid software failing to work correctly. Can you post it again as a reply to this post please?

Report · Jun 26, 2020

I tried that the first time, but I see no "attach file" button, just a link button but I don't know where to put the file to even link it in. I can repost to the forum again? By the way, I love the word "concatenate!"

Report · Jun 26, 2020

It sounds like you have some digital clipping here. This can be fixed in the future by turning the volume level of the mic input down while recording or, even better, running the microphone through a preamp with a compressor/limiter to stop these distoreted peaks.

I tested Window > Diagnostics > DeClipper (which would be the best effect for this) but it had little impact. The alternative is to run through the audio and clip out all these peaks. You can do it easily as long as you make a clean cut otherwise it'll sound edited. Switch on spectral frequency display and you'll be able to see all these clips as bright yellow lines.

I attached my attempt at removing the clips to show that it is possible 🙂

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Community wouldn't let me upload the audio so I placed my fixed file here.

Report · Jun 26, 2020

Hi Mike!

Thank you so much for your reply. I have been trying to cut out the peaks but zooming in on them and cutting each one out. The scratch is still there. And here's another weird thing: my microphone has been at the same level and in the same place the whole time. The first couple of chapters there was none of this, it just suddenly started. I'm thinking maybe my microphone cord is getting jostled a little. But I'm new to all this, so whole knows. Thank you!

Report · Apr 19, 2025

I know this is a somewhat old post but if you're still around I would love to know if you ever found and answer to your question. I have been driven mad by it. It's NOT clipping. It happened at any point in the audio and it's so frustrating because I basically can't make a good recording anymore. Any advice is appreciated.