an addin / method for removing bass distortion

[andymac63]

Hi,

I'm a newbie to Audacity and this forum so be gentle with me!

I have a live rock concert recording made using a minidisc recorder which was recorded at levels which showed that it wasn't distorting. However, due to the high levels of very low bass at the concert every time a bass note is played there is noticeable / nasty distortion on the recording (I believe this is something to do with the levels of bass overloading the pre-amp of the minidisc...but I'm no expert)

My question is: Is there an Audacity addin that would help me reduce this problem? Has anyone had the same problem and been able to reduce its effect? Or should I just give up trying and bin the recording?


Any help gratefully received

[steve]

Distortion is notoriously difficult to repair. If it is severe enough to sound bad it is usually too far gone to repair. You could have a go with the "Clipfix" plug-in, but you are likely to waste a lot of time for disappointing results. I would probably just bin it.

[andymac63]

thanks for the lightening response!

I will give that a go. Is clipfix an addin or part of the standard software. I have Audacity 1.2.6 but obviously could download a more up to date version if necessary

[kozikowski]

Your assumption that the preamplifier overloaded is almost certainly correct. You can make a good quality microphone amplifier or you can make one with a volume control. You can't do both, so the volume control is almost always after the first set of electronics. Since musical performances compare favorably in volume to a jet engine taking off or thermo-chemical explosions, it wouldn't surprise me that the amplifier overloaded.

Or not. If you are using a small electret microphone element -- fairly ubiquitous these days, the internal plates may have touched. That's the curse of a condenser microphone no matter how it's constructed.

Next time you shoot one of these things, take a dynamic microphone with you plus one or two 10 dB or 20dB attenuators. Dynamic or moving coil microphones are extraordinarily difficult to overload. There was a joke a while back that if the "music" was loud enough, you didn't need the amplifier at all. You could plug the microphone, a bullet-proof ElectroVoice 635A in this case, directly into a transmission line.

Koz

[steve]

Is clipfix an addin or part of the standard software.

I think it is now included in Audacity 1.3.7