Fixing too-loud vocals from a live performance?

[Moe Shinola]

It's from a video performance. The guitar sounds nice and crisp, but the vocal mic must have been turned up too loud, as it's distorted, bass-heavy and too loud. Technique or plugins for EQ-ing or filtering just the vocal part? Tools I have are Cakewalk by Bandlab, Energy XT 3.0 and Audacity. I've got lots and lots of FX plugins, mostly freeware. I should be able to import the video into Cakewalk and export just the audio for editing. What then?

[an-electric-heart]

Tough one. 'Master Rebalance' from Izotope is the only thing I know of that does that well.

[cryophonik]

Sounds like a job for upward compression to bring up the quieter parts, maybe in combination with downward compression to bring the vocals down? Something like FabFilter Pro-MB might be a good choice, since it will do both and let you target the specific frequencies, problem areas, etc. Flux De-Expander is another option. But, I’ve never tried this, so I’m just spitballing here…

[BertKoor]

it's distorted

I'd call it a total loss then
Chances are not just the vocals are distorted, but rather the sum of all - which you notice only when vocals get added, but once subtracted (if you manage that without artefacts) it leaves distortion in the total mix as well.

[Unaspected]

it's distorted

I'd call it a total loss then
Chances are not just the vocals are distorted, but rather the sum of all - which you notice only when vocals get added, but once subtracted (if you manage that without artefacts) it leaves distortion in the total mix as well.

More likely than not.

Your best bet might be something like iZotope RX but I imagine whatever is done, it will sound odd. Hearing how it sounds to start with might help us to recommend a method and/or tools to use.

[rasmusklump]

Acoustica from Acon does it the best....

[arkmabat]

There's clipping repair but that will only go so far.

[arkmabat]

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/how-to ... pping.html