The spoken dialogue in my video needs to be better distinguished from background noise and music on the same track.

One of my clients has a feature film in which the sound needs some postproduction TLC.

The spoken dialogue in several scenes needs a bit more clarity, mainly because there’s some competing ambient noise. The dialogue also needs to generally be better distinguished from the ambient sounds and music that are in the background. (All the dialogue was recorded on a camera-mounted microphone. No booms or lavaliers.)

The main issue is that, apparently, the only recording the client still possesses includes all elements of the soundscape (dialogue, sound effects and music) on only one track. So, mixing this audio is harder than it would be if each element had its own distinct track.

So, what are the best ways to enhance and clarify the dialogue especially so it sounds more distinct than the background sounds? The client is unable to rerecord the dialogue, perform ADR or do anything that would cost extra money. I know that using postproduction tools too much to clean or tweak the sound can make the dialogue sound too unnatural (overly “digitized”).

But what do you recommend? I primarily use Premiere and Audition.

Thanks.