I've been asked to put a couple of conference lectures up online in video format which is no biggie, but unfortunately, the person who recorded them wasn't close enough to the speaker, so the audio track has a very high ambient noise to signal ratio.

The noise I'd like to diminish sounds like the motor of the video recorder. Obviously like to boost the speaker's voice if possible, too. If these fall in different frequencies for the most part, an equalizer type filter might help a little.

Any suggestions? This is for a non-profit, so expensive sound packages aren't an option... just trying to improve on some otherwise terrible production values in the original video :} Thanks!

Can't offer any solutions but am hoping you get a good answer.
I struggled with the same issue myself. In my experience, I've always found removing the ambient noise from existing video is like trying to remove sugar from a cake thats already baked.

Hoping the forum will come thru once again.

[audacity.sourceforge.net]

pretty good for the price.
A little 4:1 compression, a 6-12db roll off shelf at 125 to 200hz, a tilt up at 2000-8000, depending, of about 3-6db.
If you're in the NYC area or don't mind sending files, PM me.

What Fritz said...

Thanks Fritz, especially for pointing in the direction of which frequencies to play with. The video file (with audio) is over 1 GB, so I'll play with it here on my own first. If I hit a wall I'll PM you. Cheers, Jem

NP. If Audacity has 3 band EQ, top & bottom shelf with a mid peak/dip, you may want to make a narrow Q (or bandwidth) and small dip between 700 and 1.5Khz.
That is the "nasal" band. The frequency center will depend on the speaker and whether male or female.