Mic Question, Recording Outside in a loud construction filled Toronto?!?

[CaptainSauce]

You guys really have no idea what noise removal actually does, yeah? lol

Noise removal will handle ambient noise only. The sound of a fan, the constant muffle drone of a distant highway, a washing machine, etc. It will not handle individualized noise like banging on a construction site. Noise removal in any audio editing program will do absolutely nothing to help what the OP is asking about.

OP, the best advice you'll find here will be to look for a shotgun microphone. All mics have a different "pick up" pattern, that being where they accept audio. A shotgun mic is one that is designed to only accept audio from a very narrow range directly in front of the mic. The most common shotgun mics that people use around here are made by RODE, and that's primarily because they're relatively inexpensive. Then, just make sure you're recording without pointing your mic towards the construction site.

That really depends on how loud it is and what's happening around you. Audacity does a great job for me in removing keyboard sounds, mouse sounds, the sound of people walking around upstairs or cars outside my window. None of these things are the exact same every time, each key has a different sound and frequency, but if you have a large enough sample it removes a lot of it. Cars driving around 100 yards away like OP mentioned might be doable but would likely just be significantly reduced rather than removed, but say electric tools being turned on and off, or people yelling to each other won't be removed.

The louder and more complex the noise that's being removed is, the more of your own voice gets removed as well. Ive had trouble with Audacity cutting out a lot of my voices base when removing significant background noise.

 

[Tarmack]

Cars driving around 100 yards away like OP mentioned might be doable but would likely just be significantly reduced rather than removed, but say electric tools being turned on and off, or people yelling to each other won't be removed.

He didn't say cars driving, he said pile-drivers at a construction site. Think massive hydraulic hammers smashing posts into the ground. This would be like trying to do noise removal on the loudest keyboard ever made. Best of luck.