Windows Freeware Guide

2024/12/11

ocenaudio (FREE) – Remove Noise from Audio on Windows

The manual of Audacity (FREE) has a title ‘Noise reduction & removal’. But I don’t see the menu that has a word ‘remove’, or ‘removal’ or any word that has the same meaning. The manual I mentioned is here: https://support.audacityteam.org/repairing-audio/noise-reduction-removal

Ocenaudio has it, but before I talk about that feature, let me take some lines talking about ‘Noise Reduction’ because I think I see a connection between ‘Reduction’ and ‘Removal’.

The test steps – ocenaudio 3.14.7

On: Windows 11 Home

Download: https://www.ocenaudio.com/

1. Download a file from a link above and install it.

I dropped a .m4a file into the program’s window.

In the picture above, in the red circle is noise.

Drag to select a part of noise.

Go to menu Effects > Noise Reduction > Noise Reduction…

At tab ‘Noise Profiler’, click ‘Get profile’. I think the app will create a profile of the noise that I selected.

At tab ‘Noise Reductor’ > at ‘Output’, select ‘Reduce noise’.

Then click ‘Apply’. The app will reduce noise in the selected area.

In the picture above is the result of noise reduction.

Noise in area 1 and 2 of the picture above were not selected, so the app did not touch them.

Noise in area 3 and 4 were reduced.

I think noise in area 5 was untouched, it might be because the app thinks this is the audio not noise. In my theory, the app defines noise by size of audio shape. If there are several sizes, shape that has the lowest size but higher than the silent level (flat line) is considers as noise. So the app didn’t consider noise in area 5 as noise because there were other lower shapes.

I use my theory to understand what this app does.

Then I selected every part of track by pressing Ctrl+A. I clicked menu ‘Noise Reduction’ and clicked ‘Apply’ to reduce noise using the same noise profile. The picture below is the result.

Look at the area 1 in the picture above, it turned to flat line that means there is no noise or noise was removed. From this situation I can tell that with the same noise profile and set output to ‘Reduce noise’, if I click ‘Apply’ 2 rounds, noise will be removed.

Area 2, noise is reduced because I click ‘Apply’ one round.

2. I started from the beginning – imported .m4a file to the app. Here are the steps:

Select a part of noise in the track > Get profile > Close a window of ‘Noise Reduction’ > Select every part of track using Ctrl+A > Go to menu ‘Noise Reduction…’ > At tab ‘Noise Reductor’ > at ‘Output’, select ‘Reduce noise’ > Click ‘Apply’.

The picture below is the result.

3. It’s time to remove noise. I repeated what I did in step #2 of this post except for one thing, at tab ‘Noise Reductor’ > at ‘Output’, select ‘Remove noise’.

The picture below is the result.

To remove multiple parts of audio, drag to select part 1 then hold down ‘Ctrl’ key while dragging to select part 2, part 3…

Right click and select ‘Cut’.

If you don’t want to remove audio, you can remove the remaining noise by selecting a noise area > get profile > reduce or remove noise at selected area. This way a duration of file is untouched.

4. Save a noise profile for future use.

Go to menu ‘Noise Reduction…’, set the values you want, click a gear icon > Save Preset… > name it. It will save all settings in every tab.

To use preset, click a gear icon > Saved Presets > select a name.

I couldn’t believe that this free app is so good.

The test steps – ocenaudio 3.14.7

On: Windows 11 Home

Download: https://www.ocenaudio.com/

2024/11/26

ocenaudio - Record Audio with Overwrite Record Mode FREE on Windows

This app has what Audacity doesn’t have. And I think this feature is a good way to fix a mistake quickly without splitting and deleting parts of audio.

The test steps – ocenaudio 3.14.7

On: Windows 11 Home

Download: https://www.ocenaudio.com/

1. Download it from the link above and install it. Open the app and click a record button.

Choose sample rate, channels and resolution

After you click ‘OK’, the app starts recording. You can tell by the symbol ‘R’.

2. In the picture below is the part I wanted to overwrite.

I don’t know if this app has ability to overwrite audio in selection area. From my searching, it’s impossible.

Let me talk about a playhead, In the picture above, 0 is the position of a playhead. The area above a ‘hand’ symbol is a scrollbar, you can drag left and right to view audio.

I selected the area I wanted it to overwrite by moving a pointer in a track, when it was changed to I-beam pointer, I moved it to where I wanted and clicked. What I got is a line (see the picture below).

I moved a pointer over that line and drag to the right to make a selection.

I stopped then I moved a pointer over the right side of selection area, a pointed was changed to two-head arrow.

It obviously tells you that you can adjust size of a selection by drag to left and right.

I selected the area I wanted it to overwrite. Remember the that selection makes it easy for me to separate a part I want to fix. In reality, I must press to stop recording myself otherwise it will overwrite a good part.

To set a playhead at the beginning of the selection, look at the bottom, click the thing in the picture above. It will be changed to a playhead (see a picture below).

Click the icon at toolbar to turn on ‘Overwrite Record Mode’.

When it is turned on, it’s changed to blue.

Press to start recording. Add audio to fix a mistake.

Don't forget to stop recording when you're done.

That’s it. It’s so easy, isn’t it?

The test steps – ocenaudio 3.14.7

On: Windows 11 Home

Download: https://www.ocenaudio.com/

2024/11/18

Insert Multiple Cursors and Make a Multiple Selection in Sublime Text (FREE)

In the picture below. Please read the last two lines.

If I understand it right, when I use it for a period of time and I don’t buy it, there is a small window saying “buy Sublime or something like that”, I click to close that window. Then I continue using it without any problem.