How to improve distorted audio from a headset mic?

Question

I'm a video editor and not well-versed in Audition, so I'm hoping someone can help.
I've been provided a piece of content where the audio track is very distorted. The person was speaking on a cheap headset microphone very close to their mouth and it sounds pretty blown out. The waveform doesn't show it clipping at any point, but the sound quality is similar to what an old fashioned "telephone" effect sounds like - very hollow and fuzzy.

I'm not expecting perfection here because the source itself isn't great, but any tips on what I can do to clean this up as much as possible would be appreciated.

Thanks.

SteveG_AudioMasters_ · Answer

The thing you have to understand about distortion is that essentially, it's unfixable. The reason is simple; there's no 'correct' reference signal, therefore no clues for the software to make any sort of correction. And this goes for all software, not just Audition. The only hope (and I have no idea how well this will work) is for you to try Adobe's new 'Enhance' app, which uses AI to try to make corrections, and that's really based on a sort-of ideal-sounding speech model. But even this has to attempt to understand what's being said, and that is likely to be where it falls down. You have nothing to lose by trying it, so you should give it a go. You can find it here.

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