Improving Poorly Recorded Audio: Seeking Advice on Voice Clarity Enhancement

I have an audio recording of a conversation involving multiple people. Everyone is seated around a table, and the discussion lasts for about an hour. Unfortunately, the microphones provided by the technical service provider only captured voices clearly and at an adequate volume when the speaker was very close to the microphone.

As a result, some individuals who were seated directly in front of the microphones are clearly audible on the single recorded track. However, others who leaned back or spoke softly are barely audible in the master track.

I have been trying for days to salvage the audio using compressors, limiters, and other tools, but I am reaching my limits. The technical service provider is currently unavailable, and since I come from a video background, I lack the necessary expertise in audio processing to effectively fix this issue.

Is there any way, or perhaps a plugin or workflow, that would allow me to improve the clarity of this recording myself?

Thank you in advance and best regards from Germany!

That may have been a processed microphone similar to Skype or Zoom. That’s how those microphones systems get rid of room echoes or conversation feedback distortion. It doesn’t make a good group recording.

I use Lossless Voice Memo on my iPhone and put the phone in the middle of the table.

Audacity can’t be used to split up a mixed recording into individual instruments, performers, or voices.

Sorry,

Koz

How is your French ? …

Unfortunately, my French is so bad that I couldn’t even order a beer in France.

The French for plugin is plugin …

Plugins pour Audacity Ă  essayer : LevelSpeech2.ny , AGC.ny

That is not the problem!
The microphones were high-quality, and the sound of the recording is outstanding.

The issues are as follows:

  1. Two of the participants sat too far from the microphones and spoke extremely quietly.
  2. The technician from the service provider did not monitor the levels and recorded only a single track with all microphones combined.

If people are not talking over one another, try the envelope tool to manually bring up the volume of the quiet speakers.

Sorry :smile:
I was a little confused
But thank you very much. I will try these Plugins tomorrow in the morning and I hope that they will help me!
Many Thanks in advance!

If they’re only quiet and not distorted, then you may be able to use one of the voice processors mentioned. I see that Chris’s Compressor is still available.

Chris wrote that so he could listen to full volume range opera in the car. Its reason for existence is to even everything out.

Please note you may not be able to end with a good presentation. The background noise and room echoes are going to go nuts with the processing.

Koz

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I remember what the problem was. Chris is Look-Ahead which is why sudden volume changes don’t catch it off-guard.

That also means it doesn’t much like running off the end of the show. I used to recommend adding or duplicating some unimportant work at both ends of the production. Cut them off when Chris gets finished.

Koz

Unfortunately they are talking and laughing over each other at several times, so it’s not easy to do it manually…

If you can’t do it manually, then no simple limiter or compressor will help either.

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