live recording

[gummblefish]

Can anyone give me some pointers on "cleaning" up live recordings of gigs. I am specifically looking for advice on working with removing or at least taming crowd noises, rustles and the like. I would like to make it sound like it is facing out, rather than in, if you get what im saying. The recordings are stereo recordings of a very intimate acoustic gig, one vox one guitar, a sennhesier 441 on each. i have been lucky with the crowd, they are in good form and its not that noisey, infact very intimate. theres also great moments in there as well. Cant remember what the desk was, but it was recorded onto minidisk and the sound is very good quite warm. any help at all would be appreciated. Im not sure if i am making work for myself or not, but i felt i must try.

 

[masteringhouse]

Can anyone give me some pointers on "cleaning" up live recordings of gigs. I am specifically looking for advice on working with removing or at least taming crowd noises, rustles and the like. I would like to make it sound like it is facing out, rather than in, if you get what im saying. The recordings are stereo recordings of a very intimate acoustic gig, one vox one guitar, a sennhesier 441 on each. i have been lucky with the crowd, they are in good form and its not that noisey, infact very intimate. theres also great moments in there as well. Cant remember what the desk was, but it was recorded onto minidisk and the sound is very good quite warm. any help at all would be appreciated. Im not sure if i am making work for myself or not, but i felt i must try.

Not an easy task at all.

Here would be my suggestion:

http://www.algorithmix.com/en/renovator.htm

 

[gummblefish]

that looks tremendous, A bit pricey for me im afraid. i might try the demo though. Im down my friends studio at the minute who has waves bundles and a few other noise reduction pluggins. I have found that quite a bit of reverb seems to help but i dont want to be too distant from the intimacy of crowd and singer. I am used to doing recordings from the privacy of a "live" room in a studio or at home, you are certainly correct its not an easy task. if only i could get "that cough" out. thanks, i will look into that package in the future, i wish i had known about it before, like i say this isnt usually my bag.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Tom is right, it's not an easy task. I know it's too late to say what you already know anyway, but the key is to try and track it as noise-free as possible.

And the day Algorithmix sells anything for less than 4 digits is the day Berhinger makes patented original design, top-end line of mastering gear .

There's no good single answer to your problem. You gotta pick your battles, picking only the ones that you can win (i.e. the noises you can actually do somthing about without destroying the signal) and accept the losses of the others.

A coupe of things that can sometimes work, depending upon the noise and the situation:

In cases where the live sugnal is pretty strong and the noises are lower-level but still audible, you might want to try some dynamic range expansion (the opposite of compression). Most editors come with a simple graphic compressor that can also work as an expander. The idea here would be to set the threshold somewhere between the wanted signal's RMS and the anticipated noise level. Then expand below the threshold - make everything below the threshold progressively quieter. This trick does not always work very well, but it is usually more usable on lower-dynamic live recordings than it is in cleaner studio stuff. Worth trying where applicable.

In cases where the noise is loud enough relative to the signal level where you can readily ID it in your waveform editor, manually highlight the peaks of the noise at their zero crossings and knock them down manually with negative volume. You could also do this with levels automation.

Not the greatest answers, but there are no really great answers to the problem.

G.

 

[gummblefish]

Thanks southside, i was hoping you would be passing this way. I expected as much my self, ie that i would pretty much have to live with the recordings Warts and all as it were. I have been "messing" about with them for a few hours now, making cds and the like of the performances of a night of music. I really should have spent more time preping the recording situation but i was doing the desk, organising the gig, keeping acts happy, helping out the photographers, greeting people whilst at the same time playing a set myself that night. Next time i will definetly plan ahead. Though in saying that, i certainly have heard worst recordings, and the pa was very good. I am not going to go too far down the road of "mastering" on these, as i am not experienced enough to know what to do. If this was a "studio" recording it maybe a different matter, but i usually ban mobile phones not to mention a full bars worth of people from my studio. I am very happy that some tracks are very usable. I just get that feeling in side that says "they could be better" I tried noise reduction settings and a few other things but i didnt want to loose the quality of the playing, which i fear is impossible with the recordings im stuck with...oh well. But in saying that the playing is awesome and there is a great crowd, certainly not the worst situation to be in. Thanks!

 

[BigRay]

there are a lot of those sort of programs..waves x noise, z noise, renovator, noise free, cedar....

I havent found any that satisfy me without sounding"chipmunky or metallic" as Cedar and renovator has...they are pricey, but well worth it. In a paying recording gig, a good noise reduction program can save your ass. Has mine(mainly HVAC)