Distortion at 200-600hz in Audition

[Monkey Pants Media]

I have recorded an audio book with a client using a Shure MV7 microphone. We recorded directly into Audition and both times, I've wound up with nasty distortion anywhere around the 200hz to 600hz area. It's difficult to describe but the man's voice sounds metallic. It's horrible. On the Spectral Frequency Display you can see the bright density of the yellow in those regions, and in the worst places, there are little dark patches (if you zoom in to the attachment you will see.)

Recordings were all done at a safe level. This particular audio book chapter peaked at -6DB in a couple of places. The bulk of it fell around the -12DB mark.

I couldn't pick up the distortions at the time of recording because unfortunately I was using a woofy old set of headphones after lending the good ones to the talent.

Currently for the edit, I am zooming in to EVERY little solid yellow or dark coloured patch, getting the paint brush, painting it over and reducing the level by 3 to 6 DB to lose the distortion. This obviously also has an impact on the general sound quality of the client's voice. It's also insanely labour-intensive: the attached screenshot is of just 1-second of audio, yet there are six distortions.

I have another six hours of audio to edit so as you can imagine, I'm feeling pretty shattered right now. Is there a way to safely fix this, as a batch? I've attached a screenshot and a very short audio sample.

[Rag and Bone]

Better minds than mine will weight in, but I would try a multi-band equalizer to improve things.

You can automate the equalizer in a multi-track session if you need to vary the equalization over time.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Normally it's very difficult to even ameliorate distortion; you can't actually get rid of it as such - you just end up masking the sound of it, and generally this alters the recorded sound in ways people aren't too keen on. That said, I tried dropping your sample into Adobe's on-line Speech Enhancer. This uses an AI model and often produces results that go way beyond anything you can do with EQ. I've attached what came back - see what you think. The enhancer is here. 

[Rag and Bone]

Good idea, Steve.

[EuanWilliamson]

@SteveG_AudioMasters_ is correct and the on-line Speech Enhancer works well but has usage limitations:

 

[Monkey Pants Media]

Thanks Steve. It does change the sound doesn't it. What a shame.  I appreciate you having a go for me, though.

[Rag and Bone]

This new product might be another avenue to try. They do offer a demo.

[Monkey Pants Media]

Thanks. I downloaded and had a go. It's a nifty tool but didn't help with that specific issue unfortunately.

[EuanWilliamson · Accepted solution]

A possible alternative may be to use Premiere Pro if you have it as part of your Creative Cloud sub.

It now has the Enhance Speech option in the Essential Sound panel.

It has all the goodness of the online tool, BUT, it works offline on your computer.

Since you have 6 hours to fix, this may work better.

See / hear the attached video showing the process on an audio clip on the timeline.

[Monkey Pants Media]

Wow! You might have just nailed it. That sounds pretty good. I do have Premiere Pro but didn't now about the Enhance Speech option.

[EuanWilliamson]

Great, I hope it works out ok.

Perhaps I may ask you to mark my answer as correct as it will help others to find it 🙂