sweetening camcorder audio

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While background hum and certain continuous-type noises are relatively easy to isolate and reduce with special digital filtering…

Reverb/Echo is one of the most IMPOSSIBLE-to-fix of audio problems, second only to severely CLIPPED (over-driven) levels.

“EQ” won’t do it.
The reverb is a rapid repetition of the PRIMARY audio… the same frequencies that you want to KEEP.

The “Noise Gate” is probably the other choice, but it will surely PUMP if its set high enough to have very much effect on the reverb. (So it could end up making many tracks sound worse.)

Whatever you try will adversely affect the overall QUALITY of the audio being “fixed” and be very noticeable to the listener (especially compared to any “good” audio in the same production).

The phrase that applies is: “GOOD audio is the absence of BAD audio.”

Therefore the best cure for BAD audio… is recording GOOD audio.

If it was as simple as adding filters,
major producers of motion pictures and TV shows would NOT spend the big bucks and TIME it takes
to LOOP (replace with ADR) any “bad” location audio with the actors re-recording the same dialogue (lip-syncing) in a quiet studio.

I know that re-recording is not always possible, that’s not my point here.
What IS the point is that once you have a poorly-recorded audio track,
under certain conditions, it just can’t be “fixed”.

— If the VIDEO is out-of-focus and the person talking is not framed correctly:
A. Re-shoot it.
B. Add filters and suffer the obvious reduced quality.
C. Don’t USE it (Substitute another shot.)
D. Suffer with, it as-is.
AND: MONITOR more carefully the next time.

— If the AUDIO is “off-mic” (reverb or echo) or severely over-modulated (clipped):
A. Re-shoot it.
B. Add filters and suffer the obvious reduced quality.
C. Don’t USE it (Substitute another track.)
D. Suffer with, it as-is.
AND: MONITOR more carefully the next time.

[Troy]

Yes, all that you say is true. I made a mistake and left my mic at home. There is certainly a chance for looping, as there weren’t many lines.
While I know there is no way to fix clipping, I wasn’t sure about reverb. Thanks for the insight.

Troy

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[Troy] “I made a mistake and left my mic at home. “

I can relate.

This happened to me several years ago.

I’d set my audio case (with the mics) out of my car and forgot that I had done so until I got to the shoot 45 minutes from home with guests waiting (on-camera interviews.)

I quickly changed how I shot the interviews.

I moved to the “deadest” (low-reverb) area that I could find, zoomed-wide and held the camera as close to the talent as I could get away with.

I made sure I asked them each to “speak loud and clear” often as we shot.

It can take a bit of improvising to compensate for what you don’t always have.