Denoising with Audition

READ THIS FIRST:

Audition’s denoising feature is not a substitute for recording good audio.

It doesn’t always work. It can remove only certain types of noise. It’s a last resort.
You should do these things in the field to make the use of Audition unnecessary:

  1. Use a camera that can record audio well (some DSLRs like the Canon T2i and T3i are inherently noisy and are incapable of recording clean audio). If you must use one of these cameras, record audio on a seperate recorder, like the Zoom H4N Audio Recorder or the Edirol Audio Recorder.
  2. Choose an environment that’s suited to recording good audio. If you can’t control where you shoot, sometimes you can control problems with your environment – turn off noisey refrigerators, air conditioners, or other appliances that cause constant background noise. Turn off your phone. Tell your subjects to turn off their phones.
  3. Measure your levels appropriately before you begin recording. Use on screen audio level monitors and headphones to make sure your signal is loud enough and that you won’t have to boost it substantially when you’re ready to edit.
  4. If you’re using a wireless microphone, make sure that you’ve selected a clean frequency before you’ve begun recording so that you don’t encounter radio interference. If you’re using the Sony Wireless Lav Mic, see the following guide for finding clean frequencies: https://journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/multimedia-resources/guides/
  5. Take steps 1-4 seriously.

If you’ve recorded audio that needs denoising, see the following guides for fixing different kinds of noise:

 

Denoising Guides

Find a guide that matches the description of the type of noise you want to remove.

COMING SOON: Broadband Noise

(camera hiss, refrigerators and A/C units)

COMING SOON: Random Noise

(phones ringing, cars honking, children yelling)

COMING SOON: Tonal Noise

(monotonal buzz or hum)

Multimedia Resources