Need help with audio quality

[chaseuk02]

Hello everyone,
I am completely lost when it comes to audio. I have a audio clip where something has went bad with the first 6-7 seconds of the recording before clearing up. It sounds like the speaker is very muffled.

I am guessing that this is something that cannot be undone? Does anyone have any suggestions or could anyone clean up the audio for me? I would be eternally grateful.

https://soundcloud.com/user-353146338/foradam6/s-LKvcp

[Tim Gillett]

No that section cant be cleaned up. The information is not there. Did you make the recording or is this from somebody else? I suspect the only hope is that those first seconds were not compromised on the original recording.

[Mike Stranks]

Had a very quick listen... mp3 only of course, listening direct on Soundcloud...

Sounded to me like the person was still coming 'on mic' as the recording started... If so it's an artefact of the mic in relation to the speaker and nothing to do with technical quality per se.

[MOF]

I don’t think it was a delay in getting close to the mic’ it sounds like MP3 artefacts due to not enough data getting to your recording device.
Not much chance of repairing it other than Cedar audio devices and they might struggle.

[Wonks]

It can probably be improved to be more intelligible, but almost impossible to get to match the rest of the recording.

[chaseuk02]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate you giving it a listen.

[chaseuk02]

Would anyone be willing to help clean it up further even if it cannot be fixed completely?

I would pay for your time!

[Tim Gillett]

I would if I felt I could significantly improve the first 4 seconds but I don't believe it's possible.

But I'm puzzled how what seems like a seamless section of speech could comprise two sections with such different levels of sound quality, with that abrupt change at 4 seconds in. What was the voice originally recorded on? Has this been edited in any way?

[chaseuk02]

Tim, yes that is correct. It has been edited to simply raise the volume so you can hear what he is saying. In the original recording the microphone appears to cut out and you can barely hear what he is saying, then it picks up and the rest of the sound is normal.

[Kwackman]

Tn the original recording the microphone appears to cut out

How was it recorded? Was the speaker in the same room as the recording or was it someone being recorded over Skype, FaceTime, ISDN or similar technology? If so, my guess is that the recording started before the technology had locked up a solid connection.
I don't think it's fixable, but hope I'm wrong!

[James Perrett]

I'd agree with Tim on this - it wouldn't be possible to match the sound of the rest of the recording. The line sounds perfectly audible to me so it isn't a problem if this is just an audio letter, but if it is for wider circulation then the best solution would be to re-record that line and edit it in to the rest of the piece.

[chaseuk02]

Tn the original recording the microphone appears to cut out

How was it recorded? Was the speaker in the same room as the recording or was it someone being recorded over Skype, FaceTime, ISDN or similar technology? If so, my guess is that the recording started before the technology had locked up a solid connection.
I don't think it's fixable, but hope I'm wrong!

It was recorded on a phone over a similar technology as you mentioned. I do believe you are correct, it looks like the connection had not had time to solidify.

Thanks for taking a listen. I just thought I would ask some folks who knew what they were talking about to see if I missed anything. I normalized the audio volume and tried to clean it up the best I could.

[Tim Gillett]

...Thanks for taking a listen. I just thought I would ask some folks who knew what they were talking about to see if I missed anything. I normalized the audio volume and tried to clean it up the best I could.

"Cleaning up" is where mistakes are often made, for cleaning up is not always easy or even possible, let alone a perfect solution. As James said, just re recording may the best solution here. Here's an interesting short article by Nick Messite of Izotope on 8 Common Audio Restoration Mistakes.

https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope ... takes.html

[Mike Stranks]

...Thanks for taking a listen. I just thought I would ask some folks who knew what they were talking about to see if I missed anything. I normalized the audio volume and tried to clean it up the best I could.

"Cleaning up" is where mistakes are often made, for cleaning up is not always easy or even possible, let alone a perfect solution. As James said, just re recording may the best solution here. Here's an interesting short article by Nick Messite of Izotope on 8 Common Audio Restoration Mistakes.

https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope ... takes.html

Indeed!

... and thanks for that link Tim... I'll have a listen later.

(A note for old sweats here: Have you noticed how often Mr G and I are agreeing these days? Wondrous! )

[chaseuk02]

...Thanks for taking a listen. I just thought I would ask some folks who knew what they were talking about to see if I missed anything. I normalized the audio volume and tried to clean it up the best I could.

"Cleaning up" is where mistakes are often made, for cleaning up is not always easy or even possible, let alone a perfect solution. As James said, just re recording may the best solution here. Here's an interesting short article by Nick Messite of Izotope on 8 Common Audio Restoration Mistakes.

https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope ... takes.html

Thanks, Unfortunately, re-recording is not an option. So I just tried to make it audible and will have to live with the difference in audio quality it appears.

[Drew Stephenson]

I reckon he'll remember the message long afterwards and probably won't even really notice the first few seconds.

[innerchord]

That sounds like adaptive audio codec switching. There is probably some scope for improvement.

[molecular]

I suspect Drew is right and the listener will almost certainly give it a lot less thought than anyone on here...

But you could do a bit of creative editing the start if that hadn’t occurred to you... could be a way of making it start with the congratulations phrase perhaps.

[Tim Gillett]

...Thanks for taking a listen. I just thought I would ask some folks who knew what they were talking about to see if I missed anything. I normalized the audio volume and tried to clean it up the best I could.

"Cleaning up" is where mistakes are often made, for cleaning up is not always easy or even possible, let alone a perfect solution. As James said, just re recording may the best solution here. Here's an interesting short article by Nick Messite of Izotope on 8 Common Audio Restoration Mistakes.

https://www.izotope.com/content/izotope ... takes.html

Thanks, Unfortunately, re-recording is not an option. So I just tried to make it audible and will have to live with the difference in audio quality it appears.

I agree. The only alternative I can think of is to synthesise those 4 seconds by selecting the same words out of the rest of the message (if they all appear) and carefully editing them using the 4 second section as the template. But you might only discover how acceptable was the result by actually doing it.

[Terrible.dee]

Hello everyone,
I am completely lost when it comes to audio. I have a audio clip where something has went bad with the first 6-7 seconds of the recording before clearing up. It sounds like the speaker is very muffled.

I am guessing that this is something that cannot be undone? Does anyone have any suggestions or could anyone clean up the audio for me? I would be eternally grateful.

https://soundcloud.com/user-353146338/foradam6/s-LKvcp

Any type of major digital audio surgery is "Fool's Gold" and a waste of your time,

Do it again, do it RIGHT

[Tim Gillett]

Hello everyone,
I am completely lost when it comes to audio. I have a audio clip where something has went bad with the first 6-7 seconds of the recording before clearing up. It sounds like the speaker is very muffled.

I am guessing that this is something that cannot be undone? Does anyone have any suggestions or could anyone clean up the audio for me? I would be eternally grateful.

https://soundcloud.com/user-353146338/foradam6/s-LKvcp

Any type of major digital audio surgery is "Fool's Gold" and a waste of your time,

Do it again, do it RIGHT

Er, it pays to read the whole thread. The OP has just stated that rerecording is not an option. We've already agreed that the relevant section is too poor to be retrieved for the purpose intended.

Tim