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Hi all.

And first of all, pardon my noobishness.

My problem is that my primary langauge isn't english and I'm kinda lost and don't know what to search for. So I've decided to hop in here and try to describe my problem, so hopefully someone will know how to help me.

I've got this video file, that was recorded by someone who was trying to make a worst job as possible. But let's leave the picture alone, I've found the way to fix it. My problem is audio file, which I'm trying to normalise.

When they recorded the audio data, (this is my guess now, I'm not sure about it) they boosted gain too much and now, when I'm listening to it, I get those cracking sounds when someone on the tape talks a bit louder. The sound is normal when they talk quiet tho. (it's only 2 people talking on the tape, no music)

So, my question is, what's the word describing that cracking sound? And is there a way to get rid of it? I've tried several mp3 and wav editing programs, used 'normalisation' filter in there, but got lost in the options as I have no clue what they mean.

I've included the mp3 file of the recording on this address (in case someone doesn't understand what I'm talking about). http://x.pbf.hr/~thorny/proba.mp3

Thanks to you all in advance.

T.

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Comments

hueseph Mon, 04/23/2007 - 08:41

You're talking about clipping or distortion. Either way, I think the problem may reside in your attempt to "normalize" the file. I don't know anyone who "noramalizes" audio. In my opinion there is nothing "normal" with "normalizing". You might be better off using a brick wall limiter just to attenuate peaks.

You don't want to utterly destroy any dynamics in the audio. That is where much of the nuance of film comes from.

anonymous Mon, 04/23/2007 - 08:52

Are you saying those noises (overloading, clipping distortion ) are there already before you do anything? if so then you've got alot of work to do!

I agree you don't want to be normalizing, putting a limiter over maybe but if that distortion is already there then you need to get out your WAV editor quick!

Kapt.Krunch Mon, 04/23/2007 - 15:09

Yep, it's hard to undo that kind of damage. If you have a lot of patience, you can zoom out the wave view, and attack the overs. If it's all spoken, you may not even lose too much, if you're careful.

You could try to reduce their levels by drawing them downward so they are not so objectionable, as mentioned earlier. Or, you may be able zoom out, highlight, and just use volume reduction. Depends on what your software can do.

You may even try to just cut them, if they aren't too long. To cut it completely, without making more of a mess, IS actually surgery. You'd have to zoom in enough that you can isolate each spike, and then highlight it, remembering to highlight it as exactly as you can at the front and back as close to the zero line as possible...IF that's possible. If you cut it away from that zero line, you'll probably just introduce another click.(Zero line is the horizontal line that should be running directly through the center of your wav. You may have to zoom out a bit to even see it, depending on how dense the material is).

If your software has a "click and pop remover", you could try that.

Depends on what you have. Once it's there...it's there. No fun fixin' it.

Kapt.Krunch