How do you improve a really bad mono live recording?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 88fingersmario
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88fingersmario

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My rock band recently played a live gig at a small bar venue and it was recorded digitally. I won't go into the horrible chain of events that led up to that recording, but the bottom line is that I now have a single monophonic track that has these problems with it:

- the vocals are dry (no reverb)
- the vocals are too loud compared to the instruments
- the digital recording levels of the track are fine, but it appears the vocal preamps clipped a lot
- the bass is too quiet

The gig we played has sentimental value and I would appreciate some suggestions on what I could try to salvage what I have. I don't expect to be able to turn this into next year's hit album or anything...

Thanks,
Mario
 
This kind of thing is made for a multi band compressor. It helps if you know how the crossover at the show was set. Set it so that one of the bands catches the voice and pulls it back. It really takes a lot of playing around, but you can make it listenable.
If you add a little reverb across the whole mix, it will liven it up a bit.
There is nothing you can do about the distortion.
 
The recording was made by directly patching into a mono submix on the front-of-house mixer. That's why the vocals are dry, and my guess is that the trim was turned up too high causing the clipping. So there were no crossovers involved... what's a good starting point for the multiband compressor? 2KHz-3Khz for vocals?

Mario
 
The crossover would have been on the PA just before the amps. The fact that the subs were most likely powered by a stronger amp would make the board mix bass shy. The low end was made up for by having more power to the speakers. If you knew the X-over frequencies, you could use that knowlege to bring the tonal balance back in line. Then you would take the mids and smash them with the compressor.
common x-over frequencies (if memory serves)
4-way 75Hz, 250Hz, 3kHz
3-way 100Hz, 2kHz
2-way 1.5kHz

These are ballpark figures, the room and other thing conspire to change these settings.

If you don't know the x-over points, try smashing in the 500Hz to 2k range and EQ in a low shelf at 250Hz and pull the mids way back.
 
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