Hello Kalle,

Welcome to the ADR forum.

I've never tried to do what you're trying to do, and cannot find an obvious way using ADR. There may (possibly) be a VST plug-in that will meet your requirements. I'll investigate that furtheR.

Perhaps you could check out the links at http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/24693.page#134343

In the meantime, could you please attach an audio sample (just 10-15 seconds) for testing purposes?

PIX PIX YouTube channel

Thanks for your help! I am attaching a 15-second (or so) clip. I included a few vocal pauses so I could have a room noise sample to work with as well. I appreciate any assistance.

(I also have CyberLink WaveEditor 2; and I am willing to get and import VST's if that will help.)

Kalle

Hello Kalle,

Allow me to qualify this post by admitting that I am not any kind of expert on audio editing. There are far more capable people who could advise you. That is very challenging audio! It's such a weak signal, generated by the distance between your microphone and the speakers.

The left channel is quite a bit stronger than the right, & it seems that "echo" is more apparent in the (weaker) right channel.

To begin with a stronger signal, I removed the right channel and duplicated the left to produce a new stereo track. I used Audacity for this purpose, only because I am familiar with the process. Next, I boosted the volume.

I found a VST plug-in that might work for you. It's called DyVision Reverb Remover - http://www.dyvision.co.uk/reverbremover.html - it seems to work well in AudioDirector with the sample files provided at that site.

When the VST effect was applied to the modified clip the result was a good bit clearer, though not ideal. Of course, the recording was less-than ideal too!



The attached WMV shows a comparison between the three clips in the screenshot.

PIX
PIX YouTube channel

Thank you so much!

I, too, had gotten as far as removing the right channel, duplicating the left, and bumping up the volume, using AudioDirector. (The shotgun mic was on the left channel, plugged in via XLR, and the right channel was just the mic built into the camera - a lesser-quality signal without the tight focus of the shotgun.) But once I got it to that point, I was having trouble cleaning up the signal more without making it sound weird.

I won't have a chance to try the VST until later tonight; but I'm really looking forward to seeing what it can do. I'll respond again once I've had a chance to play with it.

Once again, thank you for your assistance!
Kalle

PIX, I just wanted to send a quick follow-up:

At your recommendation, I purchased DyVision Reverb Remover, and have used your suggested technique to edit a couple dozen presentation sessions. The result is not perfect; but it is WAY better than the original. I have learned to tweak each clip so that I'm removing as much of the echo as possible while stopping just short of making the remaining speech sound stilted. I do my volume balancing outside of the VST.

In the meantime, I filmed a couple more days' worth of presentations; and this time I made sure to put a lapel mic on each presenter. Sometimes that meant a presenter was wearing two lapel mics - one for my camera and one for the house audio - but they were all very gracious about it. So for future projects I'm hoping I won't have to deal with echo anymore; but if I ever do, I am ready!

Thanks again!
Kalle

You might try inverting the phase of one of the tracks. I don't know if that would make things worse, or better. Jerry Schwartz