On Sun, 30 Dec 2001 20:25:58 +1100, "Brian Jones" wrote:

>Can anyone please point me to a piece of shareware that will allow me to
>turn up the volume on a piece of video but not the background "hissing"?
>
>I use a Sony Digital Camcorder and recorded a speech which was too quiet. I
>use Premiere 6 and increasing the gain merely increases the background noise
>too - so I don't achieve anything.

Cool Edit (www.syntrillium.com) is far cheaper than SF,
and likely as good for steady-state noise-reduction.
It also has an expansion/compression mudule that is
also easy to use (you can raise the mid level of volume
relative to the low and hi, raising the average volume
without clipping the peaks or raising the noise). SF has
a similar module for this, too. Careful EQ, raising the
upper midrange a bit and lowering the top, lower-mid,
and bottom-end frequency areas can also help with
"intelligibility" of voice without increasing noise
levels. Miracles can be performed by combining these,
and adding manual gain control to bring up/down
too-soft/too-loud parts... As you now realize, close
placement of the mic has its advantages (though
sometimes this is not easy...). If you have no external
microphone, sometimes getting close with the camcorder
(with a zoom-through WA converter, if necessary) can
help.