Which filter to use for this effect?

[Joe Riggs]

I have a sound effect that has a metal like sound, I like to minimize that metallic sound

to make sound more dull, or take away the harsher metal sounds, which audio filter

would be best suited to accomplish this?



Thanks

[Greg Miller]

I could guess that you want to remove some of the mid-high or high frequencies ... but that's only a guess.

It would probably be helpful if you'd post a file so we can hear the effect for ourselves, rather than trying to guess what "metal like" means to you. Once we hear the track, I imagine you'll get several helpful suggestions, and maybe even a few sample files that have been processed for you.

[Joe Riggs]

It's like this

Boltloosenscrew S011In.59 Sound Effects - FX 8593621 Only $3.00 | Sound FX

[Dave Baker]

If it's like that all the way through, meaning little clicks, then a de-clicking filter will do it and not ruin the sound quality of the rest. It's labour intensive though, each click will have to be taken out separately and the gap interpolated over.

Something like Wave Corrector Wave Corrector: Process Vinyl Records and Tapes will do it, I have used it successfully before, you just wouldn't know where the clicks were, even quite severe ones. Or good old free Audacity has a click removal filter too.

Dave

[Greg Miller]

To my ear that is a very strange effect.

But I don't hear anything that sounds like unintentional "clicks" as described by Mr. Baker. I just hear a series of vaguely frictional sounds, followed by some sort of "ping" at the end.

What part of the file do you want to change? All of it? Just that mysterious (to my ear, meaningless) "ping" at the end?

[Dave Baker]

Well, it sounds to me like a child rubbing a finger across a projection on a plastic toy, sort ot "twanging" it, resulting in a muted, soft click. I'm not suggesting that's what it is!

But look at the waveform, it's little impulses, therefore should be removeable using a click removing filter as I suggested.

Dave

[Greg Miller]

I see the waveform. But I'm assuming all those little rubbing sounds are supposed to be there, they're recorded as part of the strange sound effect. (The name says something about screw and bolt, but this doesn't sound like anything I can imagine that's related to hardware. It sounds more like someone filing their fingernails, except for the final metallic ringing sound.)

If you take out the peaks in the file, it becomes just a series of dull thumps. (IMHO it still sounds like nothing I can imagine.)

The only thing that I would call "metallic" is the final ringing noise. Just waiting for more clarification from the OP.

[Dave Baker]

Hi Greg,

I had misread the OP and hadn't realised it is a downloaded sound effect. Like you I have no idea what it actually is, but I have been giving wrong information. I think I will shut up and bow out " Should have gone to Specsavers"?:)

Dave

[Martijn Damen]

Maybe what you need is a parametric equalizer, like the track equalizer in Vegas.

Take one of the higher frequency bands and put up the gain a lot and narrow the bandwith (q) to get a pointy spike upwards. Now you adjust the frequency until the sound/frequency you don't like gets really loud and annoying. Thats the frequency you want to eliminate.
To eliminate it simply pull the gain down below zero (you get a downward pointing spike) and the annoying frequency should get less audiable. Play with the bandwith and gain a bit to finetune.

Hope this works for you.