THE MAGIC OF AUDACITY - How to fix muffled/poor quality audio

I didn't expect this video to gain so much views. Otherwise i would put more effort in it :) Anyway, someone may get this wrong so i want to make it clear. This is rather just an experiment, it is not a canon way of editing audio. Of course it won't work everytime and sometimes it can make things even worse. And you definitely shouldn't use it for anything serious.

[grandexandi]

i did this and now it sounds like theres a cat screaming in the back

[elliykollek]

It's great with music, but for vocals, it creates a second unwanted high pitched voice.

[TheProwlingSleepster]

You don't know how much I needed this. Whenever I try to make growling or roaring sounds by changing the speed it always makes the quality of the audio sound bad, but when I use this it ACTUALLY makes the quality sound a lot better

[MineBro]

Oh my god.

Now I can listen to the entire Project X Zone 2 OST in high-quality.
Bless you, man.

[Llyander]

Holy crap, this actually helped. Thanks so much! The audio I'm working with is still dreadful, sounds like the guy is talking through a pillow, but you can actually make out what he's saying now!

[andersj.gonzalez]

Awesome!!! After much experimenting with Audacity and applying this trick with my own twist I am finally bringing my old shellac and vinyl classical music records back to life!!! The cellos, the violins, the wind sections, so much was "hidden" in these recordings!!! I am now fully enjoying my digitized collection! Saludos desde Cuba!

[thesegaguy]

Bro, this is wizardy or what, I just tried it and the difference is night and day, thank you so much for this tutorial, it helped me a lot

[andreicoste]

at first, I had the same result of squeaking mice, the second time worked perfectly. What I did wrong I applied that to all 3 tracks instead of the last ones only, had the Hz range wrong too. I looked better the second time and it's perfect. Thanks, man you really helped me in a crappy situation now I have my proof for the police to actually take me seriously.

[lysywariatgra]

Man, why You have only 161 subs?!?!?! This is overpowered tip to repair AI generated music now!! I love You!

[AndrewDrewJamison]

You can also now just analyze it, open a high pass filter, and then apply that Hz number.

[drizzypuffs]

They call him the devil. But you're an angel. Thank you.

[RandomScottishHistory]

I just followed your How-to - thank you so much for the effort - I started with a man talking that was pretty muffled & I was looking to clean it up to make it more audible. The 1st try was exactly as per your video but with default High-Pass Filter setting, which resulted in something that sounded like a sped up high-pitched alien. So I backtracked & put in the same settings as you had for this same filter and that resulted in mostly silence but what sounded like insects when there was any sound at all. At least I know now how to create those sound effects, I guess. I'm going to go back to the drawing board with regards my muffled speaker, I think.

[militaristica]

this tutorial is still insanely good, thanks dude

[eiryves]

My audio sounds amazing now but.. They have squeaky voices... Help?

[SONICBOOM]

I can now restore old muffled anime opening themes. TYSM!

[Jiru]

so glad that this video suddenly popped out of nowhere in my recommendation lel

[Foxreadingthegoodbook]

What is the original song might try using an a.i. plugin for the low quality

[CoasterManOfficial]

I'm trying to improve the audio of a video from 2011 that has terrible sounding audio. I might try this method with a video from early 2008. I can't seem to get rid of the whine this method generates.

[CocoRoxas]

This helped me roughly clear up an old demo song from a toy piano that I had recorded, thanks a bunch! :-D

[uTSPhere]

Thank you very much M4Music!

I utilized your technique on the copied track; however, instead of using JUST a highpass filter, I:
- used a low pass filter at 15000 Hz (to create a ceiling for my voice @ 15 kHz)
- used a high pass filter at 5000 Hz (to create a floor of that same track @ 5 kHz)

The result made for a very clear (octave-enhanced) voice, that occurs naturally, when examined in say, Melodyne Studio. (As anyone who's done a spectral vocal removal/extraction in Celemony Melodyne or Adobe SoundBooth has probably seen.) I used these tools in this particular order, as I could not find a simple "Bandpass" option for limiting the secondary vocal track from 5 kHz - 15 kHz.

Excellent video!