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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: jimbona on May 25, 2016, 10:58:55 AM

Title: A little help on a less than ideal recording, anyone?
Post by: jimbona on May 25, 2016, 10:58:55 AM

I hope this is the proper forum for this: I taped a band called Lucius at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle a couple weeks back, and, due to circumstances beyond my control, I couldn't put any external mics on the Roland R-26. I did use all the onboard mics, of course, but I'm new at this, and I seem to keep overdoing things on attempting to normalize/EQ, etc.  It'll sound okay (after working on it for a few hours), but I assume listening fatigue is setting in, since it just sounds way overdone when I listen back the next day or whatever.

Given the circumstances, I know the audio is never going to be ideal, but I also know that someone who does this all the time could certainly bring out the best of what's in there.

I'd be happy to PM an SFTP login credential to anyone willing to take a stab at it. It's roughly 4GB combined (XY mic stereo track and omni stereo track).

If there's a better place to post this, I apologize, and will be happy to delete/move if so.

Thanks!

Title: Re: A little help on a less than ideal recording, anyone?
Post by: jimbona on May 25, 2016, 11:26:33 AM

Actually, I just put it up on my Google Drive, and will happily share with anyone willing to help.

Title: Re: A little help on a less than ideal recording, anyone?
Post by: Jhurlbs81 on May 25, 2016, 02:08:23 PM

I don't have time to work on it, but I will give you my opinion. First, I would listen to each source separately and judge how each sounds by itself.  Omni's on a handheld spaced 3" apart isn't going to help in most cases; I'd probably start with just the x-y source.  When I EQ, I only take away bad, resonant frequencies.  I never add more treble or anything. Also, when monitoring your EQ adjustments, make sure you're at a point in the show where FOH pretty much has it dialed in.  I eq'd some tapes a long time ago where it sounded very flat and dull so I added on the high end, but by 2-3 songs in, the FOH had made adjustments and the tape sounded very grating after a few minutes.  Less is more when it comes to an EQ.  At the end of the day, you'll only be able to do so much.

Title: Re: A little help on a less than ideal recording, anyone?
Post by: jimbona on May 25, 2016, 02:40:08 PM

Thanks for the tips!

Title: Re: A little help on a less than ideal recording, anyone?
Post by: opsopcopolis on May 30, 2016, 01:19:49 PM

^ great tips.  I'm happy to take a listen if you want to send me a link. Not sure I'll have time to do real work on it this week, but I'm happy to give it a once over