dirty audio from wedding

[greymalkin]

hello everyone,

I just shot a wedding video this weekend and patched into their mixing board to get a good feed from the lapel mic that was used. Well after being rushed through a mic check my levels looked good but after listening to it It sounds like i've got some clipping.

now the general consensus is that I'm screwed, but I was wondering if there are any secret tricks up your sleeve to minimize the effects. I do plan on mixing it in with what my camcorder got, but I wanted this audio feed to be the dominant one. Anyways..I put a clip up on my webpage if anyone wants to give it a shot and tell me what I need to do.

www.dlvee.com/wedding.wav (5.25mb)

thanks

[MOVIEGEEK]

I'm afraid not,once the source is distorted there's not much you can do.
You might try Audacity ->Noise Removal.

[greymalkin]

this isn't noise, it's just the harshness caused by apparent clipping..i've been able to minimize it's effects in the past by finding spikes and squashing them down but with this recording I don't see visible spikes. I'm just trying to do what i can before I blend it in. I'm not trying to take it and make it sound like nothing ever happened (as if it was a clean audio feed the whole time).

[Soopafresh]

There's the DirectX plugin Sonic Foundry (now Sony) Clipped Peak Restoration, which helps quite a bit, but doesn't completely eliminate the clipping.


Also, Cool Edit Pro has a clip restoration feature in the Noise Reduction section

Dunno if you can still download Cooledit for demonstration purposes.
If you can download a time limited version of Adobe Audition, I think these free plugins will work (or at least help):

http://www.angelfire.com/music2/etchet0m/sw/ceplug/index.html

Here's your sample processed through noise reduction, de-essing, and Clipped Peak Restoration. Also Normalized and limited. The clipping still comes through

wedding-dnoised-dessed-clippeak.mp3

[greymalkin]

thanks for the suggestions..it's a weird problem..when i look at the .wav in my audio editor it doesn't show that it's clipped, but the audio does audibly distort when the speaker raises his voice...I think the declip programs are looking for those spikes and because they aren't there aren't really able to do much. I'm wondering if perhaps my recording levels were good but the output from the mixer was bad?

[Wile_E]

There are differences in microphone and line-in impedences. You can't just hook up any mic to any mixing board. There are many variables to get good sound. Does the input require preamp, phantom power, etc..? Is the microphone pickup pattern unidirectional, Cardioid, etc? Same goes for speakers and ohm resistance. It will still "work", but the levels are totally mis-matched and can cause clipping and distortion. You'd be suprised how many people buy speakers and an audio amplifier that has mismatched impedences.

This is where the professional that has training, comes into the picture. There are so many people today offering their service to do wedding videos, it is ridiculous. Me...I would never film a special moment like that for anyone, because I'm not a professional photographer nor a videographer. Me...I would never just pick anyone from a newspaper ad to film something. They better have a well known studio with sample work available for me to view.

[greymalkin]

[EDIT: Soopafresh, I noticed you posted a clip of the processed file, thanks for taking the time to play with it. It does sound a little better..I think I just need to spend a good bit of time trying different things to get the best of what i've got]

well usually in the past I have been the one doing the sound installation and I have been the one providing the wireless lapel mic. In those instances I have always had excellent quality. I have done many weddings and they have all turned out well because of the planning and preparation I put into it.

The problem with this wedding was that it was at one of those all in one wedding places where they focused more on how pretty everything looks and less on the quality of their audio equipment. They used their own mixer and lapel mic., they said I could not use my own microphone because it would interfere, and they rushed through everything so that my time alloted to check everything was very very short.

I'm not trying to cry and say it's their fault my audio isn't all that hot, I know it's ultimately my responsibility, and my responsibility to the customer is to try and find out how to make the best of what I've got. If you're hesitant about doing weddings well then that's your decision. As for me, I've had great success in the past. I am honest with everyone that inquires of me and tell them that i am not a professional and because of this my prices are much lower. Some people don't see the sense in spending 3,000 for a video they'll watch only a few times.

So I'm really not concerned about the "ridiculous" number of people offering video services. I'm concerned with trying to work with THIS audio that I have for this particular project.