Super low audio. Help!

Hi! First of all... I am a newbie, so be gentle... I was thrown into the role of videographer and editor with little or no experience. That is how it rolls around here.

I was asked to video a company event. We have a Canon Vixia HF S10 camera. At the event, the AV guy comes over and tells me that I should really be using the venue's audio feed because I will not get decent audio from where I am positioned in the large banquet room. Sounds good to me, I plug in and do a quick test. Everything seems fine. I tape a 4 hour meeting. When I get back and start to play the video, I'm not getting any sound. The only thing I can figure is that the sound board got hit or there was some kind of malfunction.

I have been beating on the file in Final Cut Express and Sound Booth... there appears to be some audio, but it is super low and has a hum over it. The voices sound kind of like they would if you were trying to listen through a wall... for lack of a better explanation. The indicators at the top on Sound Booth seem to indicate voices, but I just can't grab them. Any thoughts on how I could trick out the talkers?

Thanks!

I am sure someone else will chime in with some better ideas but you might try the following:

1. Select the audio and copy it into an audio editor. I use Amadeus Pro but other programs should be able to handle what you are going to do next.
2.Select the entire file and boost the gain till it reaches a useable level.
3. Play the file until you find a point where all you can hear is the hum you want to get rid of and select that segment with just the hum.
4. Most audio programs let you sample the portion of the file you just selected.
5 select the entire sound and apply the noise reduction procedure that program uses.
6. Save the file.

if the sound is OK then select the entire file and use it to replace the audio in your movie. do not do any trimming of the audio until you put it back in the movie otherwise the audio and video will be out of sync.