Greetings:

I filmed some interview footage at super-high levels so that the audio is pretty "spiky." Can someone please recommend the best effects/filters to work with to correct this problem? I've adjusted the volume way down but these clips still need more work to be level/balanced, i.e. sound good!

Thanks so much...

Nicolle

"audio is pretty "spiky."

But is the audio clipping? To start off I wouldn’t of adjusted the volume way down yet. Apply the “Limiter” filter:

Limiter Filter How to!

Also a stand alone software to try is: The Levelator

yes, it's clipping. badly.

will try the limiter filter. where is that found?

what i more so mean is that the audio is "blown out" because the levels were set to high in recording.

but the limiter does seem to be helping. if there are any other tricks in X please let me know.

thanks again!

If you are getting audio distortion from clipping the highs. I don't know of any trick in X or any other software that will fix that. It pretty much comes down to a re-shoot and try to get the audio in the correct dB range. Your average should stay around -12 to -6 dB's. Just don't go over -6 at your peak. If you do that you should be safe.

This is a job for a professional. I think there are ways to redraw the waveform peaks in Pro Tools to alleviate this kind of problem, but that has its limitations as well. A compressor/limiter will only clamp down on levels; it will not correct the distortion. Usually you're looking at ADR. If ADR isn't possible, you can make it less harsh by taming the upper mids and trebles.


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