How to remove natural reverb from a recording

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Tanoti
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2004/12/09 11:30:05 (permalink)

How to remove natural reverb from a recording

I've had a search through the forum for an answer and couldn't find one so here goes...

I've been supplied a spoken audio sample to use for a telephone application but it has been recorded in a naturally reverb "live" room (actually sounds a bit like a bathroom). This becomes more noticable when the audio is uploaded on to the system.

Is there a way to remove the reverb or at least deaden the audio to make it sound more flat? I'm looking for an EQ/filter/compression technique rather than a specific piece of software or plugin although I have SONAR 3 SE and SoundForge 6 to use on this.

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    Brando
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    RE: How to remove natural reverb from a recording 2004/12/09 20:54:43 (permalink)
    You can use a noise gate - instead of removing silence, you want to set up the gate to remove the reverb tail/early reflection portion of the wave between the spoken words.

    Here is a simple tutorial: http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/effects2/1.asp

    Brando
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    Tanoti
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    RE: How to remove natural reverb from a recording 2004/12/10 03:56:57 (permalink)
    Thanks, I'll give that a try. Someone also suggested shelving the high frequency at aroung 6KHz, is this a good idea?

    Sonar 6.2.1PE, XP Pro SP2, Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 mobo, P4 E6300 Core Duo2, 2Gb RAM, 1x300Gb SATA II (OS + Progs), 1x400Gb SATA II (Audio), XFX 7600GS to 2 x 17"" LCD, Edirol FA-101, Yamaha S90, Korg M1, Roland JV-1080, Korg X5/DR, Roland SC-7, Fostex PM 1
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    Brando
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    RE: How to remove natural reverb from a recording 2004/12/10 07:49:00 (permalink)
    Yes, if it is only spoken word it's probably worth a try... although I'm not sure there will be enough differentiation between the voice and the verb on frequency alone -
    Whatever you do, be sure to make a backup of the raw wav's just in case. (I know you know this)
    On the noise gate option, I would also try to compress the original wave quite hard before applying the gate (10:1 +)
    I think the key is to make small changes to the point where you can live with the remaining reverb without completely killing the quality of the voice itself.

    Brando
    Cakewalk, Studio One Pro, Reaper
    Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL
    ASUS Prime Z370-A LGA1151, 32GB DDR4, Intel 8700K i7, 500 GB SSD, 3 x 1TB HDD, Windows 10 Pro 64
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