How I recorded a live show, why it didn't work, and what I can do about it.

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nate_dennis

nate_dennis

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A few weeks ago I played a solo show. I wanted to record it and I wanted it to sound as good as possible. The FOH sound was only two mics: my vocal/harp mic and a mic on my amp. I ran the "Tape out" of the FOH board into the "sub in" of the mixer section of an old portastudio. I ran to room mics and mixed them together into a Tascam US122L. Clear as Mud?

Unfortunately the left channel of my 122 died. It recorded nothing but noise. I don't mind just using the right channel and just having mono sound since it was a solo show, but the noise bled. I don't know why.

I solo'd the left channel as it recorded 90% noise (especially when there was no music.) I ran a freq. analyzer however, I'm not really sure how to read read one so I've added an image below. I think it's telling me that the noise is covering a large portion of the high end of the spectrum, but I'm not sure.

I mucked about with the EQ trying to get it out, but the Q has to be so wide that it really ruins the track.

Since the left is way more noise than signal, and the right is way more signal than noise, I tried inverting the phase of the left channel hoping that the noise would cancel out with the right channel, but it didn't work. (probably a dumb idea.)

Am I just screwed? Is there anything I can do? Thank you for any help that you can give.

Image below.
 

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What do you mean when you say the noise bled? Do you mean that the noise from the left channel can be heard considerably on the right one?

If so then just using the right channel isn't an option, but if not, then as you said, just use the right channel in mono, and get rid of the left channel altogether.

If the noise is still excessive, I'd suggest a sampling noise reduction plugin. These types of plugins can sample noise and then target it with very complex algorithms, which is usually better than one could do with a simple EQ.

Keep in mind, ANY type of noise reduction, whether it's straight up gating, EQ'ing, or complex noise reduction plugins, will mess with the original sound. It's always a tradeoff with these things.
 
piso3studios said:
What do you mean when you say the noise bled? Do you mean that the noise from the left channel can be heard considerably on the right one?
Click to expand...

Yes, which is why I tried to phase invert the left to cancel out the noise. I'll look into one of those sampling noise reduction plugs. Do you know of any freeware ones? I've never even heard of that. This isn't worth spending money on, so thats why I ask about freebies.

Thanks.
 
Nate ....was this a one chance gig or are you able to go back and do it again?







:cool:
 
nate_dennis said:
Yes, which is why I tried to phase invert the left to cancel out the noise. I'll look into one of those sampling noise reduction plugs. Do you know of any freeware ones? I've never even heard of that. This isn't worth spending money on, so thats why I ask about freebies.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Phase inverting one channel wasnt a dumb idea, but for things to be cancelled out this way they have to be mono, meaning that it-s exactly the same on both the left and right channels. Since this wasnt the case for your recording, it didn't work.

As for some free vst plugins to dothis, maybe some of the other member can help there, or you might wanna try doing a search for noise vsts.
 
In Reaper, click "fx", pull up "ReaFir". Select under "Mode" "Subtract", "Edit Mode" "Precise". Check "Automatically build noise profile". Select a small area where you only have the noise you want to delete. Uncheck "Automatically Build Noise Profile". When you play it back it should eliminate the noise that you selected. I've only used it a couple of times, but it worked well when I used it. Good luck. I'm operating from memory on this, so refer to the manual for Reafir to verify the process. Page 309. Let us all know if that works for you.
 
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I dunno... there is a very old, but very true, adage about computers...

Garbage in- garbage out.

Except for the possible lessons learned on how to try to rescue a trashed file, I think you are screwed. Tascam US122's are not looking too good to my eyes, these days- I have one, got it almost free, and it has one channel out. Somebody posted here recently, and theirs has lost one channel, too. Unless you are the same person, that makes three of us. I don't think I would depend on the thing...

Best to just move on and be better prepared next time.
 
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