Can this be cleaned up any?

[Lalo Alvidrez]

I shot this and was connected to the sound board which was an older model. Anyway, no one there was very knowledgeable when it came to sound and where to connect and set everything. After connecting to different places we got a signal and it had some static but could still here the speaker. Well I transfered some footage and it sounds really muffled. Like if the speaker had his mouth right up against the mic. I attached an audio file to see if anyone could clean it up any. This is the second time I've been bitten by sound with different projects and it's driving me crazy. Luckily I had another camera running but it's with ambient sound. Just would like to get it right when it comes to sound. Any suggestions? I used a stereo cable to connect to the sound board that looked like it had been there since the building was built 40 years ago. Have a go at the sound file and help if you can.

[Steve House]

There's not a whole heck of a lot you can do with that. Once reverb is there, it's there for good and there's not much that can be done to take it out. To get it right next time, take control of the sound from the very inception of the project and don't leave anything to chance. If the sound board is ancient and run by amateurs and the system isn't set up properly, bypass the whole process and do your own sound engineering from the speaker's mouth all the way to your camera or recorder. You said "after connecting to various places, we finally got a signal" - that's approach is a crap-shoot, plug-and-pray thinking. What you do is go in a week before the shoot, get the manufacturer and model information from the sound board, talk to the venue's sound person and assess whether they have a clue, go home and search the internet to find the manual or the specs for the board and work up a strategy to connect it to your gear in such a way as to properly record sound for video taking intro account the specs on their boards and the specs on your gear. If they're not available on the net, email the manufacturer's service department and get 'em. If you don't know how to properly interface their gear with yours, study up and learn how to do it. Hate to sound like a hard-a** but that's just the way it is.

[Brooks Harrington]

I think it's fixable. Use only the best channel, which seems to be the left channel. Roll off the bass, as there is a bit of hum. Try some EQ and mild gate.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Brooks Harrington

I think it's fixable. Use only the best channel, which seems to be the left channel. Roll off the bass, as there is a bit of hum. Try some EQ and mild gate.

The left channel is the best channel because it's a mono track on the left channel only. While there's some low level 60Hz hum, that's not really the most signifigant problem. The hum could be easily reduced or eliminated with any of a number of tools such as Izotope Rx. The 'ringing' of the voice caused by reverb is a much thornier issue and a flaw I find much more intrusive than the hum. That one is going to be much more difficult, if not impossible, to fix.

[Buba Kastorski]

I've tried, but can't get rid of distortion,
take a look