Need Audition help / Advice - Audio Noise

Question

I have this project I'm working on and I am new to editing audio in audition.  I clearly have a lot of noise in this audio track, but I'm not sure what effects to use or how much to use.  The main problem seems to be a constant hiss, but there are other problems.  When I use the noise reduction effects it seems to create more problems.

Answer 1

Well, first off, the best advice is to cure the noise at its source before recording.  There's almost always a curable cause for noise and hiss and it's much better never to have to use noise reduction.
However, on the assumption that you have a bunch of material you can't redo, there are ways to improve the performance of Audition's noise reduction (which is one of the better ones out there before you spend thousands on specialist stuff).
First, I tend to use "Noise Reduction" rather than Hiss Reduction even if I perceive the problem as hiss.
Second, find a bit of the track you're working on which is just the hiss without any other sound mixed in.  You can generally do this by zooming into an area at the beginning or end (or even between words).  Hit the Capture Noise Print button.
Then, Select All to work on the whole track.
However, don't try to get rid of all the noise at once or you'll get all sorts of nasty artefacts.  Instead, turn down the Noise Reduction slider to a relatively low number, definitely below 50% and preferably in the 30% range.  Turn down the "Reduce by" slider as well to maybe something like 10 or 15dB..  Then apply the reduction.
At this point, repeat all of the above.  Capture a new noise print then adjust and perform the NR.  Basically, you'll get much better results doing the noise reduction in a number (say 3 or 4) small chunks.  Make sure you keep the original though (use Save As on the noise reduced copies) in case you go too far or get something wrong.
If you're still not happy with results, try again, raising the FFT size (on the Advanced menu) and varying it between takes.