Make "faraway" audio sound better...

Okay, this may be hopeless but I thought I would see if there's any chance of improving my audio from a comedy show I taped. My shotgun mic wasn't working so all I have is the onboard audio from my DVX100B. I was in the back of the club so everything on stage sounds too distant but all the audience members back by me are super loud (laughter, talking, eating).

I tried the compresser filter to boost the audio, then I used the Reduce Noise action to try and cut out the resulting hiss that came from boosting the gain. Too much of that makes the audio sound "tinny" so I can only get some of the hiss out. Meanwhile the crowd noise is mega loud so I guess I'll have to adjus the levels on those parts of the waveform. Is there a better process I could try? I'm no audio whiz and I don't know what half of the filters are capable of...

JK

Wow... i'm responding late... but hey - here I go.... just in case someone comes along later for this.

Answer is: ADR. Do what the major features do for a profound amount of their dialogue - just re-record it later.

Let me tell you my favorite and totally unorthodox way of recording as ADR.

I do it at a location like (not EXACT) but somethng like the real location. I record it with the same mic AND I put it only as close up to the actor as would be somewhat feasible in the shot... meaning I don't put it 1 foot away from their mouth.... I give it space. Then... I play back their lines in short phrases and without any beeps or boops, and without watching their performance... they just say it back how they said it. They can close their eyes, go whereever they want to in their heads... or relive the scene a little.

Then.. I just edit it in. And it WORKS! Amazingly well too. And you don't have to be a godly mixer to make the fake ADR sound convincing. And it's cheap and easy to do.

My 2 cents.