Is there such thing as audio "restoration" software?

[00PS]

I am curious if such software exists. I am thinking of something like Photoshop for audio. I have hours of audio recorded from a handheld digital voice recorder and the quailty is inadequate at best. Soon we will have a better setup, which records audio directly from a mic, but what can I do for the audio already recorded? I am looking to put all these files into a podcast, and would welcome any hints on that also! Thanks in advance, and I will be the first to admit I am a total n00b when it comes to audio recording... 😀

 

[ChrisA]

I am curious if such software exists. I am thinking of something like Photoshop for audio.....

There are several programs you can use. But in the end there is not much you can do if the audio is noisy and you used a poor mic, poor mic placement and so on. You can try some "EQ" and compression and run the level down low during parts that should be silent and can hand edit out spikes but there is a limit of what can be done.

There is no way to clean audio automatically. The result will depend on your skill as a recording engineer. Which tells me that maybe a trip to the book store or Anazon is in order. Actually the "recording for dummys book" is not bad.

Garage Band can do some of this, and you already have it. Audacity (See http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ) can do a lot and it's free. There are many, many more