Improving sound quality

Doverwhite · Post by **Doverwhite** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:16 pm

I have a DV video of my son giving a speech which was relayed by a PA system in a large echo-ey hall. As video cameras were not supposed to be used at this occasion it was shot by his brother who sneaked in the back door. The video is Ok, if a little shaky because of the high zoom used, but the sound is rather indistinct.

Does anybody know of anyway within VS9 or by applying 3rd party software one can enhance the sound (by for example using a multifrequency fader.)? But then of course re-combining this treated audio with the video for sharing?

Post by **Ron P.** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:30 am

You could try using the free audio program Audacity. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. For a freebie Audacity is very powerful.

Also a bit OT, but is this speech being given at a school function? If so and it was my kid, and I wanted to preserve it (ie record, video or audio), and some principal or teacher told me I couldn't I think there would be hell to pay. I'm sorry but I get real upset when I see things like this happening. What has our schools and society come to? I thought that it was a free society, bullcrap. What's going on in schools where they are scared to have special occassions recorded? Are our children being brainwashed?

Now a quick explaination for my distaste for this kind of censorship. I Had 2 daughters and 1 son. My oldest is no longer with us. She was very active in sports and theater. Some very precious moments captured and preserved were of her performances. Now like I say had a school official told me that I couldn't do that, so that not only I, but her daughter, that was only 2 when she lost her mom, could experience her, then I guess they would have to call the police.

But thankfully here in the US, in my community is very common for parents to be taking snapshots, and video of their children.

Sorry for the rant, but can't record your child's speech?...

Ron P.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:28 pm

Echo / reverb is impossible to remove. Its spectrum/characteristics are identical to the sound you are trying to keep. Even when the sounds are different you can't separate them. (For example, you can't remove the instruments from a song, leaving just the vocals.)

You might be able to boost the mid to high frequencies, or cut the low frequencies (using Audacity) in order to boost the intelligibility... It's worth a try. A noise reduction filter, and some sort of auto-level control might help a bit too.

The best solution might be to add subtitles. (You would need a program like Ulead DVD Workshop for that.)

An excellent recording doesn't need any processing.

A program like Audacity or GoldWave can turn a good recording into an excellent recording.

If you have a bad recording, the cure can be worse than the disease.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:57 pm

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:04 pm