Bad Production Audio

[RP Montoya]

Hey there!
I am encountering a problem with some low level distortion on a coup[le of interviews.
The wave form looks clipped so i am assuming that the signal going to the camera was being limited. The distortion is not terrible but bothersome the boom channel sounds a little more usable than the lav. Any suggestions?
I know that its pretty much c@#p in c@#p out but I want to know how some of you deal with this prob.

Thanks
RPM

[branco]

Hello Montoya,
I'm afraid there's not much you can do about this problem, because the origin of it is in the mic preamp gain. It is a common mistake inexperienced operators make, to clip the preamp's input and try to solve the problem on master fader - the result is always distortion, regardless of recording level.
You can hide the problem with some carefull EQ (probably in lo-mid area). I've been sometimes lucky with Steinberg's De-clicker. And, yes, boom mic almost always sounds better than lavs.
Branko

[Peter Steinbach]

Concur- I almost always use the boom instead of the lavs...Death to LAVs!!!
-p

[Noiz2]

I had a problem with some overloaded interveiws that got vastly improved by some creative use of the limeter... I can't take credit for coming up with this but if your problem is becaus the file is cliped then this might work for you. You limit the file to a bit below the (cliped) peaks with a soft knee compressor. if you get the settings just right you end up rounding the sarp edges of the clips and the perceved distortion almost disapears.
Good luck
SK