Help Fixing Audio

J

jfein

Member
Hi folks,

So got a part-time job with a local non-profit editing video of their seminars. My background is not in audio, and other than one class in college some years ago, I've had no real training in it. But of course the very first project I get assigned is to try to salvage this horribly distorted, terribly blown out audio for a seminar they recorded the other week.

They aren't expecting miracles, and I've told them that there's not going to be much I can do to salvage this, but all the same, where can I even start? Audio is so not my field...

I have, at my disposal, Final Cut Studio 2. I've seen some tutorials online for Soundtrack 3, but alas, I'm stuck one version back and most of the steps don't seem to have an analog in the earlier version.

So, what can I do to quickly and easily normalize those insane spikes with the quieter bits of the audio? Simply applying normalization hasn't done me any good.

Suggestions?

Many thanks!
 
It's 1:15 am... so then, I'll upload one tomorrow. To bed now... I've torn enough hair out for tonight. ;)

I appreciate your willingness to help! Cheers.
 
By "blown out" I presume you mean clipped. Normalizing won't cure distortion or clipping, all it does is adjust the level of the waveform and changing the level of a distorted waveform still leaves you with a distorted waveform. There's no undoing damage that has already been done via improper recording technique in making the master.
 
FCS2 is a bit of a blunt instrument for "fixing" audio. There may be a "de-clicker" or "de-poper", it's been awhile I can't remember. You will need to work in Soundtrack Pro, not my favorite but for this probably not too bad.

What you really need is something like Rx by iZotope, and a LOT of time. Even then...

If you have pops (you said spikes so?) then you can either cut them out or draw them out ,but that can take a huge amount of time if you have a lot. And the results may not be great if you have a lot.

With noise sometimes you can remove it and the signal kind of comes out of the "fog of noise" but with clipping you have lost all signal during the clip so if you have a lot you don't have much signal left.
 
A great tool to repair audio is iZotope RX. If you upload a sample audio snippet (5-10 minutes) from your video I can check if RX would help. (Note: If there is a constant background noise in the audio it would be great if the sample audio snippet contains a passage where nobody speaks and only that background noise can be heard.)
 
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things that MIGHT helpt (MIGHT...so yes MIGHT as in "maybe yes maybe no) are waves crackles and the Izotope.

But...I'm afraid you're just screwed... And tell that also to the people who "recorded" it... Probably without headphones otherwise they would have heared it...

Tell them..."sorry...it's screwed.... So just organise a new event and re-record it.... simple as that..."
 
I would suggest, bring down the volume to a normal level, -12dBFS peak, then do some strong low cut and high cut depending on the recording....
 
marvinhello said:
I would suggest, bring down the volume to a normal level, -12dBFS peak, then do some strong low cut and high cut depending on the recording....
Click to expand...

that wouldn't help getting away the "distortion".... it only lowers it...

It's important also to listen "@level" which means "high enough"...Most "starters" listen to low....

if you search somewhere in the high, then to a Q factor very narrow, and search for the "chhhhchchchchchhc" sounds that botter most, lower them...that could "help"
improve it.

But as I said, it's important to listen at level, don't be afraid to listen high enough to hear details... And once your level is set (use a music cd which is compressed 541867846486 ton and listen at "quite high" level... (don't mind your neighbours)... and then don't touch the volume anymore and level with the "faders" in final cut (or soundpro)

Then after...lower the volume of the speakers/ (the boxes itself, so not in the software but the volume of the pc/mac itself) and see if you still hear details and if it's ok
 
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