Advice on editing live multitrack stand-up comedy recording?

[Jeremiah2]

Hi there,

I'm currently producing my first comedy album. I'm a little new to the audio world but am enjoying learning about it. The finished album will have live stand-up tracks mixed in with "studio recorded" sketches.

Last week I just recorded a live hour long stand-up show with a multi-track recorder. I have three tracks: one stage mic, and two "room mics." Now I want to start editing the performance, selecting the best parts for tracks for the album, editing out "ums" and what not. What's the best program to edit with these three tracks? I have been using audacity and garageband for previous projects.

I also wanted to get a pair of studio monitors because I think my headphones would make me go crazy, they're decent but make my ears sweat after a while and my head gets a little sore if they're on for more than an hour. I have a super low budget, basically spending my money up until this point on recording gear. I'm looking for something around $100-$250. I know, I know, I'll get what I pay for. But I was wondering if there were any solid studio monitors that might help me out. The vast majority of the audio is spoken word, with maybe a little music here and there for the sketches.

Any advice would be appreciated,

Jeremiah

 

[miroslav]

Man...there's all kinds of audio editing aps....I don't think you really need anything too involved or $$$ for what you are doing.
If Audacity and Garageband are working for you...why do you want to switch?

If you are just doing spoken word for the most part, you can get by with some inexpensive studio monitors. I don't have any suggestions for that, but there's a lot of choices, and you can maybe find something for that price used.
Heck, if I was just doing spoken word, I would just get a pair of really good computer/stereo speakers....if you don't want to spend too much $$$.

 

[Armistice]

You'll probably need a few more tracks to edit in the drums and cymbals that punctuate the jokes....


Does your involvement in your album stretch to recording the other, non-live bits, and if so, do those other, non-live bits feature music, and if so, what is the origin of said music? ie. are you playing it on instruments, is it pre-recorded etc, etc.

More info please...

It strikes me that you can do basic stuff in Audacity, but I'm not sure if what you're wanting to do gets beyond basic. Depends upon your appetite for using "real" software too - always a learning curve...

 

[Armistice]

Bump - board's being spammed, so just bumping this thread back above the spam until teh mods kill it...

 

[Bobbsy]

Just to go to the original question, Adobe Audition is an excellent bit of software for a project that involves a lot of editing and some mixing.

It's probably fairly telling that Audition's biggest customer base is the radio industry where editing speech-based stuff is the bread and butter of the job.

As for monitors, you may well find something in the Tannoy "Reveal" range that would suit your budget (though I'm only guessing since I'm not in the USA). I've put Reveals in a number of edit suites and they do well, especially on the sort of material you describe.

Bob

There's a one month full featured trial you can download.

Bob

 

[Jeremiah2]

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it.

I was asking about other software besides GB and audacity (which have served me well in the past), because I've never edited synced tracks from a live performance and was just wondering if Audacity and Garageband would give me trouble with keeping the tracks synced while editing.

There will be "studio recorded" (i.e. in my matress/blanket fort) sketches that will incorporate music that right now I'm thinking will be apple loops from GB (lame I know, but some of them are fun to work with). I have no plans on recording live music, but who knows, it would be nice.