The Easy Way to Rescue Bad Recordings

There’s an audio version of dialing 911
Its Sound Soap 2 – the noise reduction app
For the rest of us

At some point in your audio production career, you’re going to run into the recording from hell.

Yep, even if you’re ‘the audio guy’, you can expect at some point or another an audio you’ve promised to paying customers is beset with static, background hum (or possibly that fan you forgot to turn off).

If you’ve got a lot of old cassette recordings, you might be faced with the fact that no one is going to pay a dime to listen to them in their present condition.

Enter Sound Soap 2 noise reduction software from Bias.

Sound Soap 2 is a VERY user friendly app that is great for removing constant background noise, and other imperfections from your audio.

And for those of you screaming, “Rob, I’m technophobic!” I have this to say . . .

GOTCHA!!!!

Yes, it gives me true joy giving technophobes no place to hide, and Sound Soap 2 is one of the few applications that does this incredibly well.

There are very few menus, buttons, dials or pesky data entry boxes. Just one screen that you can master in minutes (not hours). They even have something called a ‘Learn Noise’ button that (you guessed it!) will often do a great job adjusting your settings automatically. All by itself.

Now Sound Soap 2 won’t help you with everything. Situational noises (like a dog barking) or the occasional elephant stampede are simply gonna have to stay in your program. Sorry. But its really surprising how good a job it will do on more constant noises.

There’s a complete description of the program on their website: a tutorial video that walks you through the whole process (be careful – best to have broadband). And a nice summary page, with the feature and benefits of the program.

This terrific little app has saved my bacon more than once.

One teleseminar I recorded had an annoying high pitched buzz throughout the entire program, a result of placing my phone too close to a torchiere lamp. (Don’t ask me why the torchiere lamp affected the audio).

All I know is it was intolerable to listen to for more than a few minutes at a time.

Sound Soap 2 got rid of the buzz, and rescued the call from the scrap heap.

Sound Soap 2 retails for $99, although you can probably find it cheaper with a little Google artistry or a trusty online shopping bot.

An Extra Tip: I’ve made back 3 to 4 times the cost of the software rescuing the recordings of my unfortunate friends who ran into trouble with their recordings. And because Sound Soap is so easy to use, you can do the same. Even if you’re the most techie averse person on the face of the earth.