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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: Aman on June 09, 2006, 11:45:59 PM

Title: Recorded Show; Clipping on Drums
Post by: Aman on June 09, 2006, 11:45:59 PM
I recently recorded a live show in a very intimate, small location. The recording sounds EXCELLENT, except that at times the drummer had a tendancy to, out of nowhere, accent his snare shots very loudly (still sounds quite musical, though - and being a drummer myself, I can't blame him :D). The result is that left mic in the X pattern clipped at times, which is quite an annoying thing to hear. I couldn't turn down the mics much because, the rest of the time, the sound quality was excellent and right on the spot for the loudness and characteristics of the show.

I recorded it in GarageBand. The GarageBand webpage said I should add a volume curve and stuff, but I have no idea how to do that...  I don't have too many applications at my disposal - really only GarageBand.

Is there any possible way to minimize or get rid of the "click" sounds from those clipped moments? Any help would be greatly appreciated (I'll post the recording up on the site, too! )

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Recorded Show; Clipping on Drums
Post by: guysonic on June 10, 2006, 05:35:51 AM
My experience with clip reduction is on PC based Audio Audition, or Cool Edit Pro using Clip reduction (in noise reduction options). 

Usual is to open as 32bit .wav file (check settings option for doing this) and perform the clip reduction.  Best to zero in highlighting on smaller sized clipped sections and do a sequence of reductions, rather than the whole file at one time.   The clipped waveforms will be restored with MUCH HIGHER PEAK LEVELS than before, and will exceed the normal 16 bit file ability, so normalize the file to reduce the restored peaks to be at or below maximum 16 bit maximum file limits, then convert back to 16 bit file type using dithering feature.   

This program has excellent contexual help, so use this to know finer points for any process.  In this way I have made very nice sounding recovery of severely clipped recordings.