

Here's how to remove hiss (noise) from a recording: If you use Audacity to remove noise you'll have no hiss throughout the recording. Not so with Audacity's Noise Removal tool. Noise gates remove the hiss from the gaps but the hiss will still be audible in the spoken parts. That hiss will be audible even "below" the spoken parts of the recording (you'll hear the hiss when you're saying something too). Let's say there's a constant hiss in a recording. The end result is noise removal not only from "gaps" (the parts where the recording is supposed to be silent, like spaces between sentences and paragraphs) but also from spoken parts. I won't launch into how the techniques differ but I shall say this, Audacity's tool is far superior to any other I've tried. While most other software packages use a noise gate to remove unwanted noise, Audacity goes about it differently.

I've tried various tools to remove hiss (or noise) from home recordings and I think Audacity has the best noise removal tool of all. For the updated tutorial for the changed Audacity, go here. This tutorial is for an older version of Audacity.
