make it sound live

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silverhammer

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How about this for a challenge ? How do I make a "studio" recording sound more like a recording of a live performance ? I love the sound of live recordings, but since I am every member of the project, I have to sequence some parts, sing all parts, and of course, record 1 track at a time. Are there any tricks to give something like this a "live" sound or should I just try to make the best recording I can with what I have ?



I AM ALL EARS

Peace, Silver
 
Try drowning the mix in a short early reflection reverb. Will make it sound really cheesy and live. Thats what Pearl Jam did on their first album, which is widely acclaimed for sounding live.

I think it sounds like shit. :)
 
add applause and crowd noise at the beginning and end of the song!!! ;)

anyway, I think cakewalk has a FX plug-in that can simulate room/stage effects.
 
hire some musicians (or some friends). play it live.
 
Try letting some more bleed into your tracks. I read an article in Tape Op about how the guy who recorded Yo La Tengo's last album lets everything bleed. He'll overdub an acoustic guitar while the guy monitors the mix with speakers in the same room as the mic. The idea is that you get some natural delay on the new track (also its fun to not wear headphones all the time). Some bleed combined with distance mics on some instruments could help since thats essentially what you get when you record live.
 
If it's "feel" you're talking about rather than sound qualities, here's something I saw some Warner Bros. country stars do once: record as much as possible live. With them, it was the whole band. With you being everyone, maybe a click track, a guitar (or whatever is your main instrument) and vocal. Then add the other tracks while playing back the "live" portion. When you have all the tracks you need, you can go back and re-record the original two or three tracks to get a better, more discreet signal, and you're playing along with the tracks that should have an almost live "feel". -Dave
 
You'll have a big challenge making your sequenced parts not sound robotic. If you are not already doing it, try adding humanizing techniques to the parts. For example, if you are sequencing drums, vary the velocity and timing of the snare hits, etc. Also, some drum machines use different samples for drum sounds depending on the velocity of the hit. These machines would help humanizing the mix and thus, make it sound more "live."

Even better, try to have a human play all the instruments.

Matt
 
thanks for the ideas gang

Hey everybody,
thanks for the feedback. I think I'll pass on the delay if it sounds like crap anyway. I work jacked up days and hours so the live musicians solution is sadly out of the question for me.


Hey Gnarled,
I was wondering about the bleed thing myself. I was thinking about the differences between a live set up and a studio set up and what would make it sound different. You are right, the lead vocal always has some drum and cymbal bleed, and the other vocal mics pick up some amp sound from the guitars and bass. Thanks for the tip, I'm going to simulate some bleeds in the tracks and see what I get.

Peace, Silver
 
On "the song remains the same" dvd before the song no quarter there is about a minute of pure croud noise you could put into cool edit using the optical outs on your dvd and optical inputs on your soundcard. then find a plate reverb that matches the One on the dvd. treat the tracks with it.

Dont forget to have your lead singer do an overdub with him communicating to the croud between songs and durring even.

I experimented with this and got killer results.
:cool:
 
By the way silverhamer which part of kansas city are you from.

Im a neighbor from overland park Kansas

It would be cool to be able to compare deals from the local dealers.
 
By the way when the vocals get redone use an sm57 . It sounds more live than most of the others.:cool:
 
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