Hi All
My friend recorded this vocal but I would love some help applying some EQ to get rid of the room noise. Thank you in advance!

WAV file on Dropbox


Edited to add raw vocal

Vocal with no effects

This is a tough problem. It's not room noise that you're trying to get rid of, it's room reverberation.

EQ isn't going to help here.

Neural networks trained to remove noise - like Waves Clarity - won't, because reverberation sounds like vocals.

Neural networks trained to isolate vocals - like Spleeter - also hear the reverb as part of the vocal.

I know, because I tried them both.

You need to use de-reverberation software to fix this kind of problem, something like this:

https://acondigital.com/products/deverberate/

No matter what program you use, it'll be adding some artifacts the the audio. So there's a balancing act between reducing reverb and losing audio quality.

These programs can be pretty pricey, but are often available for downloading as time-limited demos, so I suggest that's the best option.

If you can get it re recorded that would be WAY easier.

Is it possible your friend added the reverberation after the recording and could send a dry version? People often do because it "sounds better", but then it can hard to handle in the mix, particularly if the reverb characteristics are different between vocal and the instrumentation.

Another name for the reverberation removal process is deconvolution, which may be a search help.
If it really is room reverb, blankets hung across the room and/or around the singer+mic can help.

Joanne, maybe this new feature from Adobe can help?

She is in Cape Town. I am in Johannesburg. I will just get similar results.

Ah… thanks Trevor. I will try that

Thanks Gordon. I posted the version where I had already done some processing so there will be some reverb from that. Will post the unprocessed version too.

Checkout the video in the post below, Adobe Audio Enhancement Beta, Its for speech but is worth a shot.

https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance

Thanks guys. The adobe tool didn’t work… cut off the end of long syllables and robotic artefacts. Just did a bit of eq. This is the end result

Crazy (no capo) by Karen Wilmot play along with scrolling guitar chords and lyrics
https://youtu.be/_LWEZy_GM_M

You can check out an example of dereverberation software here:

http://www.alango.com/technologies-dereverberation.php

If you listen to the demo, you can hear a ton of artifacts.

Since reverberation is primarily a delayed version of the original signal, the program has to figure out what the signal lag is, and then reconstruct the signal with the lagged signal removed.

In addition to the Acorn Digital dereverberate program I mentioned, there's also Zynaptiq's Unveil. It's an older plugin, but it's also available as a time-limited demo. (I'd put in a link, but the Zynaptiq site isn't connecting at the moment).

I also see proximity:EQ⁺ is listed as able to tame "natural reverb", and is available for a free 30 day trial.

I'm sure they specify "natural reverb" because one of the tricks of machine-based reverb is to modulate some portion of the signal to make it richer. Of course, that just makes the dereverberation problem even harder to solve.

I didn't listen to the file because if it's printed, it's dang near impossible to get rid of noise and FX without leaving obvious artifacts in it's wake.

The best option is to record it again under better circumstances.