Help Restoring audio

[Shaolin]

Hi all,

I've got a bit of a tricky one in my hands and need some help - It's a very old recording. You can download it xxxxxDELETEDxxxx I dont usually deal with audio this bad so I don't know where to start.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Im on DC-Art Millennium

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[Lord Theo]

Download with caution

Webroot's Spy Sweeper has identified this file as containing Email Sentinel Pro, a monitoring program which secretly tracks all user activities.

[Shaolin]

What ? Its an mp3 file.

[Craig Maier]

Lord Theo,

I already downloaded it. What should I do?

[Shaolin]

Lord Theo,

I already downloaded it. What should I do?

Hello Craig,

Ignore him. I just ran a spybot scan and it didn;t detect anything. I dont know why someone would make such a comment, but Im in need of geniune help.

If you could suggest any ways of improving the audio I would greatly appreciate it.

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[Lord Theo]

Your file may not be the problem, it could be the website you've posted it to is dropping a tracking cookie on user pc's. If you have industrial strength spyware scanning such as Spy Sweeper or Ewido, I suggest you use it.

[Shaolin]

Oh ok, sorry for the misunderstanding. If that;s the case then its usually in the internet files or cookies. Just clear your cache or run a program like spybot.

[Lord Theo]

Email Sentinel Pro

Craig,
The MP3 file is ok, the website used to download the file is the culprit. It's a non-destructive tracking cookie. It will not interfere with your pc, but will track your Internet activities. This is a privacy issue only...you won't self-destruct.
Webroot's SpySweeper is the only application I know of to remove it, maybe forum members are aware of others. Both spybot & adaware, as well as anti-virus sw are ineffective in this instance. Hope this helps.

Theo

[Craig Maier]

Thanks, Lord Theo -

I just downloaded Spy Sweeper. I am running it now to find the culprit and to get rid of it. I probably should go and edit out that link so that nobody else gets clobbered by it.

Craig

[Shaolin]

Ok, so any ideas ?

[Craig Maier]

Shaolin,

I did get a chance to hear the file before I got nervous and deleted it. This is what I recall hearing:

1. It sounded like an overly compressed MP3 file having a lot of artifacting and almost no dynamic range. Is this MP3 your only source file? If not, then the source file may sound much better than what I am hearing.

2. To increase the dynamic range of this file, you can use the Punch and Crunch effect in Expansion mode with a fairly small ratio. That should improve the sound quality.

Please understand that I need to edit that link out of your posting because I do not want to see anyone else picking up the problematic cookie.

[Shaolin]

Ok, I've uploaded it onto my website so no need to worry about cookie issues anymore. Click here for a direct stream.

The original format (I got this off another website btw) is .rm and is heavily compressed. 28 minutes which is 3.33mb.

PS. I re-edited the original post.

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[Craig Maier]

Again, the biggest culprit seems to be the highly lossy compression and the digital artifacts that were introduced into the audio coupled with the destruction of all of the dynamic range of the file.

So, reiterating, I would apply the Punch and Crunch effect with relatively small values of "ratio" in Expander mode. Adjust the various bands thresholds until the sound improves.

That should help.

[Shaolin]

Again, the biggest culprit seems to be the highly lossy compression and the digital artifacts that were introduced into the audio coupled with the destruction of all of the dynamic range of the file.

So, reiterating, I would apply the Punch and Crunch effect with relatively small values of "ratio" in Expander mode. Adjust the various bands thresholds until the sound improves.

That should help.

Thanks, I work on that. I want to bring the voice out more - I was thinking of using virtual value. What do you think ?

[Craig Maier]

The Virtual Valve often can help improve articulation, especially using the exciter mode. However, it also brings up the noise level, which in this case consists of lots of digital artifacts from the lossy compression process used.

A better idea might be to use the Median filter, which can improved speech articulation.

But, I would start out by improving the dynamic range of the signal with the Punch and Crunch first and then try adding in other filters/effects thereafter.