Lavalier microphone goes down during seminar - how to fix the audio? Options

[Curlz31]

So you're recording someone's speech at an important seminar.

There are three microphones. Lavalier, Podium, and on-camera.

The speaker is roaming around the room, and so the lavalier mic is critical .... but .... 16 minutes into the 37 minute speech .... the lavalier breaks down.

You are now an audio n00b with some dodgy audio, sitting in front of Adobe Audition (which you have never used), wondering what to do.

You just want to make the audio bearable.

You try Noise Reduction and then boosting the decibels .... but it still sounds bad. You watch several tutorial videos, but it still sucks.

You then finally give up and go to hydrogen audio begging for help.

The video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuv8eQuzrJI (as I say, lavalier goes down at around 16mins .... then quality is variable as the speaker moves around, sometimes closer and sometimes further away, from the remaining microphones)

This post has been edited by Curlz31: Apr 23 2012, 16:18

[DVDdoug]

Realistically, there's probaby not much more you can do other than choosing the best audio. moment-to-moment, from either the camera or podium mic.

and on-camera.

If this is a video production... subtitles. If you go with subtitles, you should probabaly reduce the volume when the quality is bad, so that the background noise isn't too annoying... Most viewers are going to reach for the volume control and turn it down anyway when the sound gets bad.

Now... If you are trying to do a truly "professional production" and your talent is on-board with the project, you can get him/her in "the studio" to re-record and lip-sync the audio. That's how Hollywood movies are made... The on-location dialog is re-recorded in the studio and "fake" background noises & sound effects are also created in the studio. (You'd probably want to take some room & audiance noise and mix it in with the clean studio-sound, and maybe add a tiny bit of reverb for the "live feel".)