Is this salvagable?
by Randy Brown
on
Nov 4, 2009 at 10:46:01 pm
A client came to me today with a CD copy of a digital recording he wants cleaned up. It is almost not intelligible but it is very important to the client (he's a policeman that says he was fired unjustly and the recording can prove him right.)
I am willing to pay for help on this. If interested please listen to the mp3 sample at soundclick.com/GRB53 ... it's at the top titled "conversation".
If you think you can help I can email you the uncompressed file.
Thanks very much,
Randy
Re: Is this salvagable? by Norman Willis on Nov 6, 2009 at 1:47:31 pm
>>Two questions:
-Can you understand every thing that is said on the tape? If yes, then there is no need to make captions
-Do you think captions are valid in court if you can not hear what is said at the original tape??
I remember one particularly gripping scene from "Waco: The Rules of Engagement" where you see video of the Waco compound burning in the background, and then there is a recording of a telephone conversation with an FBI agent speaking with a small child, with the child scared, asking if they were "gonna come kill me", and the FBI investigator promising "No, no one is going to come and kill you." You could make out the conversation if you listened a few times, but the captions/subtitles really helped.
I doubt that background video like that would be admissible in court, because it would tend to sway the jurors (the 'audience') too much; but I would think that no matter if the conversation is clear or not, having subtitles/captions would really help people pick out the words.
Re: Is this salvagable? by Randy Brown on Nov 6, 2009 at 2:46:52 pm
The problem is that out of the full 00:25:44 you can only understand a few words here and there. The sample I posted is one of those places.
Thanks guys,
Randy
Re: Is this salvagable? by Bob Peterson on Nov 6, 2009 at 3:16:08 pm
The problem is that only 14 seconds of the sample plays. That sounds very recoverable, but the unavailability of the remainder prevents the rendering of an opinion.
Re: Is this salvagable? by Bob Peterson on Nov 6, 2009 at 8:30:22 pm
I don't think you are following. The player in my browser stops at 14 seconds which, based on the progress indicator, is about half way through the audio. If the file cannot be played, it cannot be recovered. Perhaps it is a limitation of the player used by the browser. The only thing I can suggest is to put the file somewhere online where it can be downloaded. That would allow a more robust program to attempt to play it.
Re: Is this salvagable? by Randy Brown on Nov 6, 2009 at 9:30:42 pm
Bob, the clip was only 14 seconds...not sure why the player showed different.
I have posted another section titled "conversation 2" that shows a section where I have no idea what is being said.
Re: Is this salvagable? by Ayla Xpyakyalo on Nov 8, 2009 at 7:27:57 am
Sorry Randy, I don't see why these guys don't get it. You want the audio CLEANED UP. Very simple. A Sound Forge problem, not a Vegas problem. I will try for you.
Re: Is this salvagable? by Randy Brown on Nov 8, 2009 at 2:26:20 pm
Thanks Ayla,
You're right, Sound Forge would be a much better tool than Vegas for this but I know a lot of Vegas users use SF also. I posted over at the SF forum and only got 1 response.
I would very much appreciate you taking a look and seeing what you can do.
Thanks,
Randy
