Audio enhancement

The advent of the digital age has seen our ability to record and replay audio materials grow exponentially. Recording in diverse digital formats has largely replaced analogue recording, and generally offers an improvement in quality. The use of audio evidence in legal proceedings has increased markedly over the last few years, to the point where there are few major trials which do not have some form of audio evidence.

Despite improvements resulting from digital recording, the quality of audio material is often mediocre. Proper audio enhancement can make a significant improvement to allow an investigative team or jury to gain the maximum information. An ever-widening range of enhancement tools are available, the main types of enhancement currently available are:

• Noise reduction,
• Hum and hiss removal,
• Click and pop removal,
• Level enhancement,

Once a recording has been enhanced, it is common for us to produce a transcript of the content. It is often commonplace for such recordings to form part of an overarching presentation that presents the full picture in electronic form.

Other important aspect to bear in mind are the effective presentation of recorded material in court, and we are often asked to provide appropriate equipment to ensure that jurors and counsel can hear audio content clearly.