Sound Editing

[Peterc]

I have just posted this cry for help on the Music Page when I discovered this section.
Can anyone please tell me, in VERY simple terms how I can use my new Sound Forge 6 program to enhance the quality of an mp3 music track just downloaded from the internet.
The sound is both muffled and slightly echo-ey and I would like to clean it up. I am very much a novice and any help in simple steps will be appreciated - the language in the program Help Topics is way out of my comprehension.
Thanks a lot, in anticipation,
Peter, Melbourne, Australia

[Headtime]

Pete, whilst I don't know much about the specifics of Sound Forge, I do know a bit about sound editing (Cool EditPro). Quite often, sound files from the internet have either been recorded (ripped) badly by someone or more likely have been too heavily compressed (either to save on download times or to encourage you to purchase a better quality version. All mp3's, by their very nature, are compressed - i.e sound information has been thrown away to reduce the file size. Usually this loss of information is barely audible to the human ear. Try opening your MP3 in Winamp ( http://www.winamp.com
) . Winamp will tell you the quality of the file in kbps in the player window. If it's less than 128kbps then it means that the file itself is of an inherantly poor quality - and there is not very much you can do about it.



If it's muffled (usually a sign of heavy compression) you could try adding some treble if Sound Forge has a graphic equalizer function. If the music track is commercially available you could try buying the CD, or if you got it from Kazaa try downloading the song again. Always download the file with the largest size, this usually means it's of the highest quality. I really do recommend Cool Edit Pro or Cool Edit 2000 - from http://www.syntrillium.com
They really have got a massive array of controls for reducing noise and faults with sound. Hope this of some help.

[j2buttonsw]

Headtime, SoundForge is an industry standard! As has been said, you can try EQing the track to make it "brighter" or less-muffled (Process-EQ). You can also "boost" the signal (like turning up the volume) by selecting the entire track and "normalizing" it (Process-normalize). However, removing echo/reverb is neigh-on impossible. You can try to do further clean-ups but you require 3rd party plugins (Directx or other). I would concentrate on downloading a better version (see above) rather than trying to polish a terd!

[Headtime]

CoolEdit Pro is also "industry standard"..just depends on which industry you work in...mine - broadcasting.

[j2buttonsw]

LOL Headtime.