There are times – despite our best intentions and equipment that the audio of a training video has static. How do you remove this after the fact using free software. These instructions are created for videos – but if you stop at step 10 – you have a podcast of your recording!
Step by Step Guide
- I like to start by making a copy of the video I am editing to work with. Just Copy, then paste the file. This will ensure no matter what you do – you still have the original content.
- Convert to an audio-only file(.wav) using a free online service like audio.online-convert.com
- Open file with Audacity (an open source program)
- Zoom in you can really see the file (tip: Control+1 zooms)
- Select a section with no audio – highlight then listen to confirm no speaking. See screenshot for example.
- Go to Effects, Noise Reduction then click on “Get Noise Profile”
- Then go to, Edit > Select > All. Your entire file with become highlighted.
- Return to Noise Reduction and press “OK”
- Your static is now gone! The sections with static will now be completely flat lines.
- To save, File > Export. Personally, I add “clean-version” to the title as I save so I have both files but you can also override your existing file here if you choose.
- Now to put the audio and video together again.
- To merge the new audio and the video together, we will be using MS Movie Maker. If it didn’t come with your machine – download it for free here.
- Open video and then “Add Music” The file you will add is your cleaned up audio file.
- At this point, you have 2 audio tracks – so go to the “Edit” tab and click on “Video Volume” and mute the volume.
- Then save movie as an MPEG-4 and your done!
These instructions were modified from this great video at Instructables