survailance audio filtering

If you'd like to get into this area seriously, then Cedar Retouch is the undisputed king. Waves noise removal plugins are also good, and I believe Izotope have released a noise reduction suite recently, although I haven't used it or read any reviews on it so cannot offer an opinion. I don't know of any decent freeware noise removal plugs unfortunately - but noise removal is definitely what you want, you won't get very far with just EQ. It's pretty amazing what Retouch can do - I don't own it, but have seen it in action. It's magical!

Izotope RX Advanced is one the best, surely, but it costs 1,100 dollars. It's "CSI-level". The normal RX for 349$ should be good as well. Izotope also has a speech cleaner for 39$.

Sound Forge has a good one.  I don't know if it is included in the Studio (cheap) version, but you could look.  I just used the NR to take some room noise out of a hand held recording I did.  It worked fine, w/o touching the music.  You could probably do more w/ just straight conversation.

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LOL Shadow...you poor guy, I can so relate to this! It's a nightmare, isn't it? I think this type of work is both a blessing and a curse. The stuff *I* get to do is super interesting...but it's so challenging, when I have to do it, I usually go to bed feeling depressed and frustrated. Then I think about how well it pays and I fall asleep. LOL! 

Depressed because it's actual real life....you know, FBI as well as county work with criminals etc. Drug set-ups, murder stuff....that's the depressing part of the job. The furstrating part is...some of these artifacts are near impossible to remove. Yet, you can't ever delete a piece of audio because then it becomes "tampered with".

I had one last week...I'm telling you, I almost told the client "no more...I can't do it!" I can't tell you much about it, but I can share a little. So they wired up a guy. Somehow, the guy gets scared, removes the wire and puts it in his pocket. He's setting someone up. The problem is, the dude has a bad leg and limps when he walks/runs! So with every step, there is this massive sliding effect with a vibration that is just impossible to deal with. What sucks is, while he's having this conversation, he's walking with the dude he's setting up and his limp/foot dragging totally covers up the discussion. Add that in with city traffic noise, hookers, other street talk going on....and a freakin' low flying plane comes into it and then a fire engine! LMAO!!!! I was pulling my hair out I tell ya...and I need my hair! Hahahaha!

Anyway, +1000 on Rx 2 Advanced. It's pretty incredible. Between it, Adobe Audition (I always brag about this program and people think I'm insane...the editing tools it has...I've never found anywhere else. Rx2 is definitely modeled from Adobe but it's on roids compared to Adobe lol) and Wave Lab (plus the wide array of plugs I have) I was able to tame this beast pretty good. But these types of jobs are just about always a challenge.

Yeah vibrations are a tough one...sort of like the dude with the limp. His foot dragging on the pavement made the weirdest sound...like a sssssllllpufff each time he walked. When he ran it was actually kinda funny because it got more intense and faster. I'd walk from this stuff, but man the pay is really good...and I got some good connections there if my sorry butt ever gets in trouble. :) Good luck with your project...I feel your pain ten-fold brother! ;)

-Danny