Remove Buzz mixed with Speech

[Stefan5D73]

I’ve got an old Hi-8 video I’ve digitized through Premiere. There is a buzz/static on the audio track. Unfortunately, it only appears WHILE someone is talking, and parallels the talker (like they're talking through a buzzy piece of wax paper on top of their normal voice) so there’s no way to isolate a noise print.

I’ve also been unable to isolate it using the equalizer or Noise Remover.

Any thoughts if such a thing is possible, and how I would go about it? Thanks in advance!

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Natively this sort of problem is really difficult, if not impossible, to fix using normal 'linear' tools, which is what Audition has available. The one thing that I think you should try though (and I'd like to know how well this works) is to feed your example into Adobe's new online Speech Enhancer, which you will find here. This isn't a normal tool at all, and instead uses AI to recreate what it thinks you should sound like. I have no idea what it will do with this sort of distortion issue, but it's got to be worth a try. Nobody's actually said, but I think the reason that this is only available as an online tool is that it uses what can only be described as a significant degree of computing power. Hopefully this will one day be refined to the point where it can be included in Audition natively.

[Stefan5D73]

Thanks for the suggestion. Fascinating! I'll give it a try, probably today, and let you know.

[Stefan5D73]

Well... it was definitely clean, but it was no longer english. The best way I can describe the result is as a sort of broken version of the language Sims use in the video game. I may have tried too large a sample, and I'll try something smaller later.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Interesting. Even more interesting if we could compare it to what you sent!

[Stefan5D73]

Sure - sorry. It's from my 1993 bachelor's party - my friends roasting me.

[Stefan5D73]

And you can clearly hear the buzz I'm talking about.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Oh yes - can hardly miss that! TBH I'm not entirely sure what's caused this, as there are places when it almost doesn't do it - generally when the amplitude reduces slightly. Was this bog standard Hi-8 sound, or PCM?

[Stefan5D73]

Not sure what it was recorded on, but I'd guess it's standard. Is there a way to tell? Btw, I found another AI voice enhancer online that seems to be doing the trick. Non-Adobe, so I won't mention names. Here's the same clip - night and day.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Okay - what happens if you feed the cleaned-up version to Adobe's Speech Enhancer?

[Stefan5D73]

It once again starts sounding like Sim speak.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

That's a shame - it almost worked!

[Stefan5D73 · Accepted solution]

I'm actually pretty happy with the Adobe alternate. It's understandable by and large. Thanks for your help! I never would have thought of searching for AI voice enhancers if you hadn't suggested it.