Any tricks for overmodulated audio?

[ChattyJ]

Aside from firing the camera guy who recorded this crap (If I could I would...twice) are there any tips for repairing audio that was recorded way too hot and is distorting. My back's kind of against the wall, it's audio that MUST be used in a show that MUST air, most of the other stuff is just random high clips that don't sound too bad when the levels are pulled down, but this one section is really bad. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm working in PT 7.2 and the only extra plugin I have is the Waves restoration bundle.

[minister]

right....and the old ADR trick is out too, hunh?

sometimes Sonic De-Crackle does miracles.

if you don't have it, get it. or, find someone who does.

if you can wait until thursday, i can help you then.

[ChattyJ]

yeah, this is kind of a dump project...it got dumped into our editors hands who consequently dumped it into mine. Gotta love "Class A Toop priority" emergencies from management. I wish the phrase "we can just fix it in post" was never invented.

[Ken P]

Aside from firing the camera guy who recorded this crap (If I could I would...twice) are there any tips for repairing audio that was recorded way too hot and is distorting. My back's kind of against the wall, it's audio that MUST be used in a show that MUST air, most of the other stuff is just random high clips that don't sound too bad when the levels are pulled down, but this one section is really bad. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I'm working in PT 7.2 and the only extra plugin I have is the Waves restoration bundle.

wow i was just going to post on this exact same topic...same situation here. audio was recorded to camera and everytime the guy on camera gets excited and starts talking loud, the audio is clearly overdriven. like when he says "if i could only keep my mouth SHUT" (good start ) there is distortion on "shut". so i go in an pencil out the clearly bad spikes for about 15 to 20 minutes, play again, and there are still many spikes before and after. i could pencil tool the one word to death and i may come out slightly better. then i see the mass amounts of other distorted words down the line and i shiver at the thought of having to pencil tool for days....

minister you mentioned sonic De-Crackle, i am going to check that out for sure! are there any other magic distortion erasers i should look into?

[minister]

minister you mentioned sonic De-Crackle, i am going to check that out for sure! are there any other magic distortion erasers i should look into?

from my experience, this works the best. part of the No-Noise bundle. it interoplates what is supposed to be there on either side of your selection. any old interpolator in a storm.

lemme know if i can help...but i have 3 deadlines for wednesday....

[DaveP]

If you have the waves restoration bundle you are in luck. Use the waves De-Crackle - set all settings to 100 and let her rip. Just use it on the offending material, don't use it like this across the board. Sometimes the results are astonishing.

Also, sometimes you made find improved results by processing 2 or 3 times.

I usually make a copy of the original then mute it and process the other copy with an audiosuite.

[Tstein]

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minister you mentioned sonic De-Crackle, i am going to check that out for sure! are there any other magic distortion erasers i should look into?

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[QUOTE]

from my experience, this works the best. part of the No-Noise bundle. it interoplates what is supposed to be there on either side of your selection. any old interpolator in a storm.
[QUOTE]

I agree with Minister. Sonic is best for your situation. As far as any old interpolator in a storm goes, sometimes the Pro Tools De Crackle and even De CLicker in Audiosuite can help a little bit. And I do mean a liitle bit. Be carefull, they can (even sonic if not used carefuly) make things worse.

If the distortion is creating a lot unwanted high frequency harmonics you could try a steep Lo Pass Filter.

Good Luck and may the Hertz be with you,
Ted

[Andy Hay]

hey guys.. something to remember is that if the offending audio is peaking out close to 0dBFs be sure to gain your clip down 10-15 dB so that De-Crackle has some headroom to reconstruct the waveform. Good luck

[Branko]

I've heard a demo of CEDAR's Declip module for Cambridge system and it is amazing. The demo was based on a distorted piano recording and they removed the clipping distortion and left the piano sound untouched!
It's a bit pricey, though....
Branko

[CD Productions]

I'll second the X-Crackle from Waves. It has saved a few over-modulated clips for me.