We have a semi-important lecture file that someone saved as an MP3 only with way too much amplification, and as a result it is too distorted to understand. The original has been deleted. Is there any way to de-amplify it? We are using Mac OS 10.6.3 to record. I have PCs I could do the work on as well. Don’t know downloader used. Using Audacity 2.0.6.
I’m sorry, there’s no way to fix that.
If it was a little distortion and not saved as mp3, you could probably make it a little bit better. But if it is really overloaded and then converted to mp3, it’s end of story.
There are even a couple of expensive plugins that do declipping. But they’re no miracle workers.
Most clipping and overload patches work by “guessing” what the original sound was by carefully inspecting what’s left. If you have trouble understanding the work, then there isn’t anything left.
Koz
Thanks both. I was afraid of that.