Audio distortion: is convolution reverb filter helpful?

Hi,

I have got a messy situation: I recorded an interview where four separate people were miked to two different cameras. The sound from the mics of the two main people in the interview went through an improperly set Shure mixer to the camera, so they show A LOT of clipping. The sound from the two mics which went straight to the other camera show no clipping, but the voices of the two main interviewees sound dull and a little distant. So now I have got to improve their sound somehow using the right mix of the four mics.

My question: someone suggested I use a convolution reverb filter in which I can provide a sample of the sound I want and a sample of the sound I currently have, and the filter will interpolate the sound, placing it somewhere between the two.

Does anybody know more about this filter and how it works, and can you make any specific recommendations for this or other filters to help me in this situation?

Cinefile

<<<they show A LOT of clipping.>>>

That's the worst one. I have a note in to someone who's making "anti-distortion" software, but it's not intended to repair clipping--and it only runs on PCs.

I think you have no show. Unless you can perform a reshoot or get the talent to perform again, those voices are permanently damaged.

The other voices may be recoverable and I don't think you need fancy-pants software to do it. The graphic equalizer and compressor/expanders in either Final Cut or Soundtrack should be a big help. If by "dull and distant" you mean low level, you may have no show there, either. When you process those microphones, the room noise and the *microphone* noise is going to come up giving you people speaking lines in a rainstorm.

That, too, is very rough to recover from.

Can you push this project off onto somebody else? There's a very nice flu going around.

Koz

Hey, Koz:

I wish I could push the project off to someone else, but I own it! So no flu for me, unfortunately.

What is the anti-distortion software for if it doesn't aid with clipping?

C.

Wave Repair is a program that processes audio taken from old analog audio tapes and vinyl disks. It has all the bits and pieces necessary to help with clipping, without actually fixing clipping. Fast Fourier Analysis, Bessier curve generation, slope analysis, etc.

It's one of those programs that's soooooooooo close. I wrote them a note explaining the problem we have. That's not the problem *you* have, however. Nothing will bring back heavy clipping. There isn't enough waveform for the software to guess where the rest of it might have been. That and this software uses the audio before and after damage to guess what "good" is. Heavy distortion has no good.

Even if it did work, the software might make up new words and trust me, you don't want to do that to somebody's interview.

Koz

Point well taken. Is there software on the market that will help me for those sections where the clipping is less notable? I can't throw the material away, and I don't want to spend hours upon hours using ProTools to draw the curves of each clipped waveform. I would like to salvage what I can, if there is some software that can help.

Thanks.

<<<I don't want to spend hours upon hours using ProTools to draw the curves of each clipped waveform. >>>

That is, of course, the time-honored way to do this, which is completely unworkable in a highlly distorted piece.

[www.delback.co.uk]

That's the site. Go find yourself a PC and try it. Like I said, all the seasonings and ingredients are there for a good clipping tool, but it's being applied in a way that reduces vinyl wave overpeaking. Wrong direction.

You might dig around inside SoundTrack Pro. There are some interesting distortion tools in there--although nobody associates those tools with clipping repair. They're more for air conditioner rumble. [Process, Set Ambient Noise.....]

Clipping, variable background noise, white noise (rain), and echoes are the four horsemen of sound. Once they ride through your show, they leave dead bodies behind.

Koz

Koz, your use of imagery for audio issues is second to none. Great apocalyptic analogy!

C.

<<<use of imagery for audio issues is second to none.>>>

It's all I got left when I can't do squat to help with the original question.

Koz

Go read your mail.

Koz