Hello! I was hoping someone here could give me some guidance. I recently returned from a shoot only to discover the ATT switch (attenuate) was flipped on for some of the footage. Unfortunately, since the ATT option keeps the audio level from physically clipping but not audibly sounding distorted, the cameraman didn't realize the gain was too high while watching the levels (the headphone jack was busted, fyi). My problem now is that the audio sounds distorted (hard clipping), but normal, in-program clipping options don't find anything wrong during analysis since the waveform never gets above approx -6 dB. I only put this in the Soundtrack Pro forum because that's what we have here at my job, so if someone knows how I can clean up the audio (not necessarily looking for perfection, but hopefully a little better) I would be greatly appreciative. If there is no way to do it in Soundtrack but you know of another program, please explain that, as well. I may be able to talk my boss into buying it if I throw enough techno-babble at him. ;) Thank you for your time! :)

Hi Jett79, What do you mean when you say '[q]but normal, in-program clipping options don't find anything wrong during analysis since the waveform never gets above approx -6 dB.[/q] Does the waveform look likes it clipping in Soundtrack Pro, or does it sound like its clipping? Maybe you can take a screenshot of the waveform and post here so we can see how bad it is. The problem is that if it is clipped there is not much you can do to correct it. Is there no way to re-record the audio? Let us know and maybe we can provide you with some info to help.

Sorry for the delayed response. I was off for the holidays and am now in Mexico on another work shoot. The waveform is not clipping because that ATT option prevents the waveform from going above a certain point (-6dB in this case). However, the camera only keeps the waveform from clipping; it doesn't prevent the audio from becoming distorted if something is too loud. So, to answer your question, it sounds like it's clipping, but doesn't visually clip. I ran across a YouTube video that explained how to pull audio back from the edge. Basically, the audio sounds distorted, but it isn't yet at that point where it's destroyed. Unfortunately, the first step in the video is to use Soundtrack's option to detect and fix clips. My problem is that the waveform isn't visually clipping, so I can't follow the tutorial. I don't want to boost the audio to force it to visually clip, because I have a feeling that will make it worse. I can upload some pictures when I get back into town, but for now, that's the best I can do... And thanks for responding. :)

Do you have a link to that video? I bet they're not working with "recorded distortion", just audio that clips but didn't "record" the distortion. You're camera recorded the distortion as your sound, and it is not be generated by clipping in STP. You will only see the meters clip if the audio goes over 0db. Your audio was not recorded that high, it was compressed, but still recorded with the digital clipping. This is a HUGE MAJOR HORRID side effect of in-camera ATT. It doesn't stop clip distortion when the audio goes over, it records that, then afterwards compresses it so it doesn't physically go over 0db or whatever that specific camera was built to do. Good news, camera makes have auto-attenuation on their features list. Bad news, it doesn't work worth a gosh darned for anything. Why attenuate if you're going to "record the distortion" anyway? It should be illegal, IMHO, for camera makers to include this feature/curse in their products. There is no way to get rid of it in post. It is recorded that way, the data you need was lost. It is just like if I shoot something really bright, and there are portions really blown out as way too bright. I will NEVER get that over blown bright section to look normal. The image data is just blobs of white, nothing else. Same for audio. Once distortion is "recorded" to the file, that's it, you recorded distortion, not clean sound, you can't fix it. I'm very sorry. You can use EQ to try to patch it up as best as you can, but "recorded distortion" can not be eliminated. Lesson learned, it is always MANDATORY to monitor the audio properly during shooting, or you risk so many things going wrong and rendering your audio totally unusable. There is iZotope RX which can help more than anything else, but it won't remove all the distortion, it may not be able to do anything depending on how bad it is, and it is very, very expensive. Any chance I can hear a sample of this audio, raw from the camera?