Audio Restoration is often seen as magic in how it can repair music or podcast and broadcast dialog audio by removing unwanted sounds or noise. Audio Restoration requires a mindset and toolkit. If you have some audio that you wish to enhance, preserve or restore, reach out as I may have a solution.

Audio Alchemy
The medieval Alchemists were known for transmutation: turning low-value base metal into the noble metals gold & silver.  I put forward, practicing audio alchemy is the act of transforming audio. Not simply recording audio, which is a craft in itself. What I am talking about here is taking program material whether in the form of a individual tracks to be mixed together, already mixed songs, a field recorded sample (instrument, or sound), a poorly captured voice monologue or creation of a unique sound from synthesized or natural sources (sound design) and transforming it. Of course you are thinking ahh, mixing & mastering, audio engineering. Yes and No…

The craft of audio alchemy as I practice it sometimes is about mixing and blending. Yet in the extreme cases, it’s mystical stuff, it’s about breathing new life into audio, which then will manifest in a better form forever. It’s a form of transmutation. Not synthesis or the creation of a new crazy sound from something else, which could be sound design; but, the transformation of some God-awful audio into something useful.

What do I mean? Audio Alchemy takes different paths: sometimes it’s a pedantic process to improve, and yet in extreme cases it is the equivalent of turning lead into precious metal. Here are a few examples:  an ever present low hum of an air conditioner; removing a honking car horn as it whizzes by; the waterier, waverly sound of a poor quality, bandwidth limited digital recording; a constant Ssssssssssssound, the plaaaaa plosive sound in audio terms, the breath, fizzle, haaa sound some humans make as they are catching breath before belting something out, and a myriad of other possible combinations of all the above including ambient hums, whistles, scratches, bumps, shakes, zips, barks, chirps, and fizzles etc… and, in the extreme: speech recorded via iphone with the phone located right on top of the loudspeaker capturing a painful distortion along with the barely audible voice.

Sometimes, with the wave of a magic wand, a truncated piano chord forming the cadence or resting place concluding a scene in a film is corrected/manipulated to extend its natural decay into silence to synchronize with the video fade to black. The magic wand is actually a multi-pronged process involving matching the ambience of the piano sound before the chord, sampling and extending the actual chord, blending the new sampled material with the existing truncated material, then adding reverb that’s of the same character of what is already on the track. Poof: just like that. Oh, and that’s 6 seconds that took 20+ minutes of experimentation to come up with the right recipe to please the discerning ears of the composer.

Yes, most of the time it’s more like taking the wind gust, cough, hisssssss or hum out of a relocation recording for use in a podcast or film soundtrack.  Or, pushing back the audience chatter in an emotive, intimate live performance, which I liken to using a toothbrush to scrub a 747 airliner. It's a slow intensive endeavor that can improve in the least, transform at best.
 
Beyond audio repair, polish and restoration, as audio consultant I make specific tool and technique recommendations to organizations, institutions and media creators. Everything from the specific recording setups to capture ethnic instruments in a remote Mongolia village to the very practical software-based tool recommendations for the Los Angeles Ballet.

My behind the scenes restoration work is present in a wide range of video, audio soundtrack and stage productions that include: the Los Angeles Ballet, amazing natural sounds of Dr. Jane Goodall’s Africa experiences for the My Life With Chimpanzees audiobook, The Nature Conservancy’ Standing Tall for Trees PSA, the initiative to plant a billion trees and restore forests around the globe, Ruth Mendelson’s internationally acclaimed Well Wishes and Blessings -Kids in America to Iraq, Dr. Sally Edwards’ Persistent and Pervasive podcast series amplifying the voices of feminist scientists and activists developing creative solutions to protect people’s health, Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children' Poetry in Motion series of empowering videos under the direction of M’liss Calzaretta, Tour the Cupola of International Space Station with astronaut Suni Williams, Association of Space Explorer's Earth Movie Theatre, the groovin sounds of Polarized Guru, the captivating live performances of jazz saxophonist Dave Wilson and radio personality Jack Frisch’s Downbeat weekly jazz broadcast to name a few.