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[adoucette]

I had a rather interesting person come to my studio yesterday in a desperate act, asking that I please look at a piece of audio for him. The audio is from a surveillance video that was issued to him from the police. His brother in law is facing charges of man slaughter that this man is certain that he didn’t commit the crime. They have exhausted all of their resources to try and clear this up and after hearing their side of the story I was convinced that should I be able to do something to help, that I should. I opened the audio and worked on it for a good hour trying to remove the background noise and enhance the conversation that is going on. I didn’t have much luck, I was able to remove a lot of noise but because the hum of the machine takes up the same frequency as the voice I am trying to isolate, anything I did to it had an effect on the voice as well.

I am asking out to the world of engineers and mastering engineers to please take a moment and open this file. Listen to it and see if perhaps you can help isolate the voices and make the words more audible. The voice of the defendant is the one that occupies the 120-130z range at the beginning of the sample. The whispering is that of the police officers.

Again this was released to the defendants lawyers legally so what is being asked is ok to carry out. Of course the identities of the people will be kept private.

Here is a link to a quick sample of the audio, if you feel it is something you might be able to do, I will of course send you the rest. I only did a sample to make it convenient for anyone willing to try.

http://www.andredoucette.com/October2010/SAMPLE.wav

I wouldn’t bother with this if I didn’t feel there was something legitimately wrong with the way this man is being prosecuted. It would be unwise of me to assume that the man didn't do the crime, but equally as unwise to assume he did. If this piece of evidence could possibly clear a man of a lifetime imprisonment, It would be an incredibly noble and selfless act to try and help.

The man is 65 and has exhausted over 190,000 dollars in legal fees, drained his retirement savings and has been cut off from his family. Please help

Your consideration is greatly appreciated. Please send any responses to either my PM (i will be checking it,) or to my email at andredoucette@yahoo.com

Regards,

Andr

[bblackwood]

Might be worth finding someone who specializes in dialog NR for this - it seems like some companies (like Cedar) have specialized tools for dialog treatment. Don't know if that would help, but maybe...

[adoucette]

Thanks Brad, I'm not familiar with Cedar, do you happen to know a website?

[johnR]

http://www.cedar-audio.com

[OTR-jkl]

Do a google search for Forensic audio. Those guys specialize in exactly what you are looking for....

[TotalSonic]

From my understanding, depending on the County or State the trial is being held in, for audio recordings (particularly restored ones) to be admissible as evidence in a court of law the engineer providing the service might have to be certified or authorized by the County, State or Court to perform this service.

So - you should check on the specific laws regarding this for the place where the trial will occur and then make sure that any engineer that either does you a favor or that you hire can is in fact one that is allowed to present evidence as an "expert witness."

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[lowland]

Steve makes a good point - it's one of the first things that occurred to me when I read your post, Andr

[Thomas W. Bethel]

Many times when I have done forensic audio I have a fully armed sheriff siting in my studio so there is no break in the chain of evidence.

Not sure how it works in Canada but most times the courts here in the States want to make sure the audio engineer is not accidentally "doctoring" the original recording or editing it in some way to make the person say something they are not really saying. Working on something that is posted on line is not legally a "chain of evidence" in the States.

There has to be someone in Canada, in your province, that has the necessary equipment and know how who would take on this task.

Best of luck! and let us know if you have found someone.

[lowland]

How are you getting on with it, Andr