I have an audio track downloaded from YouTube that contain what I call "gremlins"; unwanted audio artifacts that don't exist in the original YouTube video. I have seen this before and have just lived with it. Now I'm smart enough to at least ask the question if there is a way to remove them without seriously disrupting the audio that I want to keep. In other words, a "cure" that is worse than the "disease" is not a cure.
I'm pretty sure these gremlins are a result of the downloading of the video and may involve the process of converting the video file to an MP3 file.
Here is an image of a section (roughly between 4:14 and 4:17) where a prominent gremlin lives. (I call him grandaddy troll #17 ) There is no visual anomaly that I can see at this timescale in the waveform and the gremlin is not described as white noise but rather it sounds more like a ringtone on a phone. From what I've seen over the years each gremlin has a somewhat unique sound profile. And is somewhat faint, so a good pair of ears are needed to hear it; but it's bothersome enough to me.
For any mixing pros out there, have you seen this and have you been able to solve it? There is a ton of EQ capability in Studio One so I'm hoping I already have the required tools.
I don't think I can post the MP3 file because I don't have the copyrights. But I can send it privately.
Thanks for any ideas.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Why would you convert a video file to mp3 and how? Assuming that you know this is not possible, what are you really doing and how are you converting the audio?
BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac 24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5
Yes, we would need to know the steps you are taking and what software and settings you use. I’m assuming you are recording the audio while watching a video.
I’ll pm you my email and you can send the mp3 file.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Why would you convert a video file to mp3 and how? Assuming that you know this is not possible, what are you really doing and how are you converting the audio?
Why? So I can operate on the audio in my DAW. I don't know this is not possible. I know this is possible.
How? RealPlayer
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
Hello Steve, So there are numberous apps to transfer the Audio Only from a Youtube video. I know this because I have used most of them. And most of them work well. But since this is a sketchy operation it is not unusual for all of these to fail for one reason or another at one time or another. As a result, after years of hit or miss, I settled in on what I find to be the most reliable for me.
I use Audacity, a free PC Recording application. What it does is simply record to audio what ever you are sending to your PC speakers. So, first I configure Audacity to record my Speaker output, then I arm the Audacity track. Hit record on the Audacity Track and immediatley hit play in YouTube. After all is done. I then save the recorded Audacity track as mp3 or .wav or whatever audio format I care for. Drag and drop that into Reaper and all is good. If there are any audio glitches, I simply repeat the process.
The only challange with this is the Audacity configuration can be tricky at first. So I have written down exactly what I need to do. Fact is if I only use Audacity for this single purpose, I just set it and forget it. That is until I have an update and all settings go back to default.
I tend to do those kinds of things from Linux and I haven't done it for quite some time, but I believe there Windows-runnable versions of both youtube-dl and yt-dlp. I know not if they have any artefact issues. Maybe worth a look if Dan's method doesn't work for you.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
I use Audacity, a free PC Recording application. What it does is simply record to audio what ever you are sending to your PC speakers.
Dan, has anyone ever called you a walking library?
As it turns out I have attempted this with Audacity in the past and I think it messed up or disconnected my audio drivers. And I found that RealPlayer [usually] does this well with a small footprint on my other applications. These "RealPlayer gremlins" happen randomly and only on occasion. I'll guess that it's 95% reliable.
I sent Matt a snipett of the problem and will see if he comes up with anything. If not, I think I'll just re-download the video with RealPlayer again and I'm almost certain the portfolio of gremlins will be different and hopefully, non-existant.
My thinking behind posting this problem is it may be possible to "filter" the audio file in some way, perhaps with a low-pass filter or similar. I also thought that someone here might have a contact at the makers of RealPlayer that could shed some light or at least put this on their bug list, assuming RealPlayer is the problem.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
OK, I listened to the audio snippet Steve sent, and my equipment is quite good.
I do not hear any noise or pops or distortion etc., the sort of audio glitches I might have expected to hear. I DID hear an odd bit of unexpected audio, almost like someone in the background playing a rinky-tink piano. Is that what you call the 'gremlin' here?
Please give me a link to the YouTube audio and tell me the time stamp corresponding to the audio snippet you sent. I want to listen as carefully to the source.
First wild guess: does your PC have any other audio programs running that could have contributed to this, such as a streaming audio player like Pandora?
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
When one download application glitches another download application may not. +++ HERE +++ is a Windows YouTube to MP3 application that works well for me.
Like Dan I am also fond of using Audacity's "Record What You Hear" mode which works very well.
OK, I listened to the audio snippet Steve sent, and my equipment is quite good.
I do not hear any noise or pops or distortion etc., the sort of audio glitches I might have expected to hear. I DID hear an odd bit of unexpected audio, almost like someone in the background playing a rinky-tink piano. Is that what you call the 'gremlin' here? Yes, a phone's ring tone is another way to describe this.
Please give me a link to the YouTube audio and tell me the time stamp corresponding to the audio snippet you sent. I want to listen as carefully to the source.
I wouldn't be surprised if you find no problem when you download/convert this video. See above reply to Dan. The timestamp is around 4:14.
First wild guess: does your PC have any other audio programs running that could have contributed to this, such as a streaming audio player like Pandora? I do have Pandora on my PC but never streaming when I download videos.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
In the YouTube video, I hear the same rinky piano at that same place, in the left channel, exactly as in your audio snippet. If that were me as the audio engineer, I would suspect somebody left a fader up accidently for a second. Of course, I think engineers in the day used to leave those little easter eggs for folks to anguish over...
I think your software captured the audio correctly, at least as it is on YouTube (which does employ its own compression algorithms and who knows what could happen, but I don't think this). Either that, or you are hearing something I'm not.
Given that it is not terribly loud, you could perhaps use a plugin to put a Gate on the audio and hope it kills this without altering anything else. Touchy adjustment, though.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
An interesting update. I just re-downloaded the same video using RealPlayer; this time NO applications running except my browser. And once again, the same gremlin at the same timestamp is present.
This I did not expect.
I wonder if this is an intentional "watermark" embembeded into the audio file for some (unknown to me) purpose.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
I do not know the tricks YouTube might use, but I could understand if they or the publisher or ?? desired to add this little snippet of sound as a digital watermark. The irony is that YouTube is the world's biggest offender.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
In the YouTube video, I hear the same rinky piano at that same place, in the left channel, exactly as in your audio snippet. If that were me as the audio engineer, I would suspect somebody left a fader up accidently for a second. Of course, I think engineers in the day used to leave those little easter eggs for folks to anguish over...
I think your software captured the audio correctly, at least as it is on YouTube (which does employ its own compression algorithms and who knows what could happen, but I don't think this). Either that, or you are hearing something I'm not.
Given that it is not terribly loud, you could perhaps use a plugin to put a Gate on the audio and hope it kills this without altering anything else. Touchy adjustment, though.
You are absolutely right Matt . . . the YouTube video itself is flawed. Here I am assuming that an "official" video would always be clean, pure and error-free!
I think this might exonerate RealPlayer and we certaily can't blame Carol.
Leave it to me to uncover interesting problems . . .
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
"...winter spring summer or Fall, ...All you got to do IS CALL..."
I think I hear a bit of sonic disruption in the left speaker under the vocal IS CALL. This would be something only the recording engineer should catch.
OK folks, so I'm full circle back to my original question for you Professional mixing engineers.
Is there a way to isolate and surgically remove this bit of musical cancer without killing the patient?
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
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) There is no visual anomaly that I can see at this timescale in the waveform and the gremlin is not described as white noise but rather it sounds more like a ringtone on a phone. From what I've seen over the years each gremlin has a somewhat unique sound profile. And is somewhat faint, so a good pair of ears are needed to hear it; but it's bothersome enough to me.
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