Help removing reverb?

[futon88]

At least I think it's reverb...

I have a voice-over audio clip from Riddick (2013) with some echo, like it wasn't recorded properly. It sounds this way straight from the bluray, and while fixing it isn't one of my priorities for my edit, it would be great if I could improve it.

Is anyone able to provide pointers on how to make the voice-over sound more natural, or maybe even take a stab at it? I can provide a link to the .wav here, or via DM...

Thanks in advance.

Mods, if there's a better forum for soliciting help with an edit, please move (with my apologies).

 

[unfair]

What part/timecode is it? And is it possible you're listening to only the stereo channels when it's dolby 5.1 or some scenario like that where you're not hearing a bass channel or something?

 

[tremault]

if it's a single echo from a single surface, you can possibly remove that in audacity by using some filters. if it's general audio splash from an enclosed environment though, it's needing some advanced processing.... there's nothing for free, but there is paid AI tool to do it. It's fairly pricey. Certainly not something I would want to invest in. https://fxfactory.com/info/echoremoverai/

 

[addiesin]

There are de-verb audio options in adobe products Premiere (video editor) and Audition (audio editor). There is an audio AI in the app called Descript that tries to (among a bunch of other things) restore damaged audio, that may help. And there are expensive paid plugins like listed above or iZotope RX 10. While Descript is a for-profit service, it has a free option that may cover the amount of footage you need in one go. Worth trying out. There is also a free Dereverb plugin with recent updates for open source app Audacity: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=126614

 

[futon88]

I've done some additional reading, and it certainly seems complicated. I don't know enough about the original environment to speculate, but to my ears it sounds like they were just lazy in post. Anyways, it's probably not worth it. It sounds the same on all of the sources I've checked. If you have Netflix, you can hear it for yourself at 00:01:26 ("Don't know how many times..."). It's cleaner on the bluray, but not in a good way.

This is a B- movie that I'm hoping to elevate to B+, so it doesn't have to be perfect.

 

[futon88]

I wanted to provide an update on this!

I didn't find any success removing the reverb from this bit of the voice-over in Riddick, but I was able to mitigate it.

@DonkeyKonga's thread on music replacement led me to the Adobe AI speech enhancement tool. I ran it through that and it gave me a sample with no reverb at all, and a nice lower timbre in the voice. However, it no longer sounded 100% like Vin Diesel. So, I mixed it with the original audio, balanced the volume in favour of the new file et voila: It sounds like Vin Diesel and most of the reverb is gone. It's not perfect, but when I toggle the enhanced layer on/off, it definitely sounds better. The voice is more full, and the added bass hides the reverb.

 

[Catlit]

iZotope RX 10 contains a De-Reverb tool that works alright.

I don't know if that would be helpful at all, since iZotope products are prohibitively expensive, as the company's reaction to (and cause of) rampant software piracy. They go on sale a lot though.

 

[DyslexicFcuker]

iZotope RX 10 contains a De-Reverb tool that works alright.

I don't know if that would be helpful at all, since iZotope products are prohibitively expensive, as the company's reaction to (and cause of) rampant software piracy. They go on sale a lot though.

I have iZotope Ozone 8 for mastering. I don't know if that would have a way to remove reverb or not...