Audio clipping/blown

[Junray]

Hi all, It's there a way to remove audio clipping? I know it might be a long shot but I thought I ask.

What happened was I hired someone to second shoot for me and I had him mic the podium. It was a Quinceanera, the speaking part from the speakers was great. However, when the church lady got up and sang on the podium some audio clips were blown.

Is there any plugin I could use to save or lower it down just a tad? Also, I have Adobe Audition but haven't had time to use it. Does anyone know how to to do it in Audition?

TIA,
JR

[ryoken]

i dont know abt audition, but in sound forge there is a audio restoration plugin that can "restore" clipped peaks. YMMV.

[johannesj]

RX from izotope.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

[SoundFreak]

No No & No, if the original recorded file is clipped and distorted that's it, no cure.

Even if Edius is showing Excessive audio levels it doesn't mean that it is actually clipped (this depends on the the recordings device headroom)

If the recording device had lots of "headroom" then you are saved, just lower the audio level on the time line till the audio meters in edius don't max out.

If after the audio level adjustment of the sound is still unbearable then your in trouble ..........

[johannesj]

SoundFreak is right a bout that he is saying.
But if your original recorded audio is clipped that you can not skip using you wona get it as good as possible.

Go to the izotope page and download the RX tryal.

[antonsvideo]

I often get clipped and distorted sound, I open the file in Soundforge9 and perform clipped peak restoration, 2 mouse clicks and it is as good as new, guaranteed every time

please send me a short clipped file (10 seconds will do) and I return it back in perfect condition

[SoundFreak]

Edius is not a realtime audio editor in the sense that it does not refresh the audio wave info like it does with e.g. video filters.

When you load a file in edius that contains audio either with or without video, edius will read the audio and make a wave cache file to display it visually.

If for example you have a audio file with 0 dB audio peak level it is not clipping as also seen in your wave display on the timeline, now increase (extreme example) the audio level by +12 dB, it is clipping and distorting heavily, but looking at the wave display on the timeline nothing has changed, still a nice clean wave.

Same goes for a wave display on the edius timeline that just shows a maxed out wave, totally flat at the top (max level), if you lower the level by e.g. -12 dB, the audio might become clear and clean again (depending on the recording device headroom) but the wave still look frightening. (again a extreme example)

So Junray, Unless you lower the original file en render it out, re import to the timeline, you'll never know what is what.

If you want to be sure about your audio file use a proper audio editing software and check what is going on.

[SoundFreak]

2 mouse clicks and it is as good as new, guaranteed every time

I agree with the right software, lots can be done to audio, but how do you restore something that was not there to begin with ?

You can filter / smoothen the DC voltage introduced by clipping, but more than that ?

Looks like I need to get myself a copy of Soundforge9 and investigate this, great , new things to learn !

[antonsvideo]

I agree with the right software, lots can be done to audio, but how do you restore something that was not there to begin with ?

You can filter / smoothen the DC voltage introduced by clipping, but more than that ?

Looks like I need to get myself a copy of Soundforge9 and investigate this, great , new things to learn !

any distorted audio wave starts at the bottom and travels in a certain direction until it is clipped, Soundforge 9 takes note of the direction and redraws the wave to where it should have been, as a result you end up with totally perfect audio

[johannesj]

Right Anton
I thing ill check on Sounforge, have not used it for fiew year´s now.
There are som progs and plugin that do grate jobb on this.

I allways try to get the best recorded original sound, with good headrom.
BUT, when i get clipped audio from someone or i came back from feald recording, and it is not possible to re record an interwiew, live music or what ever i was recording, and i kan not skipp that recorded audio in the project I do the best for the audio as i can.

Using apps and plugins is possible, and some apps and plugins do unbelive.. grate jobb. Ok you do not have that natural sound in the recorded audio, but you can get qite good sound that is ok or just fine to use from that clipped audio.

So, it is possible to save the day.

My best
Johannes

[SoundFreak]

Is it seriously that good that a severely clipped audio can be saved ?

Does it only work on speech, or the entire audio spectrum ?

Is this a filter that comes standard with Soundforge9 or is it a plug in from third party developer.

This is getting interesting for me as I use Wavelab to do most my repair work for clients who come with these "problem" files en need a lot of "wave drawing" by hand (very time consuming).

A good working (high quality) fully automated process is always welcome !

[jaegersing]

Soundforge can't do magic. If only the very peaks are clipped off then it has a good shot at interpolating the waveform, but if there is gross clipping SF has no way to know what was happening "above the line". For background sound it's not so bad, but so far I have not been able to recover music files that have been badly clipped, at least not to a level that I am satisfied with.

Anyway, after restoration in SF, you can use EQ to cut at 2KHz and 4KHz to reduce the audible distortion. This can help to make it a bit more tolerable.

Richard

[johannesj]

I have not tested it in Soundforge, but i belive anton on that. Many users of soundforge i have hered from love that prog, i did when i used it long time ago, mide go there again.
And you can get tryal of RX from Izotope, you can usit as standalone or as a plugin.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/rx/

[antonsvideo]

Is it seriously that good that a severely clipped audio can be saved ?

Does it only work on speech, or the entire audio spectrum ?

Is this a filter that comes standard with Soundforge9 or is it a plug in from third party developer.

This is getting interesting for me as I use Wavelab to do most my repair work for clients who come with these "problem" files en need a lot of "wave drawing" by hand (very time consuming).

A good working (high quality) fully automated process is always welcome !

if you can understand the spoken words but they sound terrible because they are distorted, SF9 can fix it

if the sound is so distorted that you can't make out what is being said, then SF9 won't be able to help

in case of the OP, the loud and distorted singing should be fixable, providing you can still understand her somewhat

[xmanflash]

I ran the RX demo and tried clipping restoration - I was under the impression it could not work, but it was much better than I expected! - there are video demos on the izotope.com website..