Topic: Fix Recording?

[lsd2525]

Have a recording that is o.k. for the most part, just have a few "harsh" spots where the preamp overloaded at the beginning of a few songs. Nothing major, mostly stuff where the artist switched from acoustic gituar to piano, and the first few chords on the piano were loud enough to overload the preamp not to the point of totally ruining the reecording; but i would like any suggestions as to how I can smooth out any of the "harshness" of the overload. I know I can't undo what's been done, but it's not so bad that it needs to be scrapped. Anything I can do using software that can "smooth" out any of the "harshness"? Can send sample if you like. Thanks in advance-Dan

[Roving Sign]

What is your editor?

[nihilistic0]

A sample would help greatly

[RedRocketSr]

i'm just getting started myself and recently taped an acoustic performer (guitar and singer only) and the recording came out a little 'thick'. not terribly clean sounding, which is very close to how the coffee house sounded. I used the Cool Edit 2000 to 1) normalize, 2) remove sub rumble and 3) EQ filter (which lets you adjust the sound and preview it before keeping it that way) to make a final tweak.

Also I recommend saving each iteration of adjustment until you are satisfied and then go back and clean up your hard drive.

I am by no means experienced and for the most part read here alot without understanding enough, but above worked for me and it was fairly easy.

[lsd2525]

wow-fast responses. didn't expect that. Two birds with one stone- The major "finaglaler" I use is Cool Edit 2000, but I've been thinking of switching to something else, so i'm open to suggestions. As far as a sample- just went and looked, couldn't find what I was talking about, but did find two Marijuana Jazz Band shows that I thought I'd lost, so that's cool. Will go look again and see if I can get it posted; It's after 2:00 on the east coast so I don't know how long I can search tonight-but thanks to both of you for your response.

[lsd2525]

Another response-just went and looked again and couldn't find the disks-that's what I get for saaying I can put up a sample. I'll find 'em & get a sample up-but it will have to be tomorrow, way past my bedtime tonight. Thanks for the reply as far as the normalize/eq/etc. using Cool Edit......but that won't do much as far as what I'm looking for. There may be a way to help my recording using Cool Edit, but you can't eq preamp overload out.....I wish  I had that disks at hand to post what I'm talking about-I really didn't think I would get responses this quick. In the meantime, let me try to describe it again-it's the distortion you get when you record something too loud......like when you make a cassette and have your levels set too high. Only in my case, it's just like like in several short spots, when it peaks, just want to round them off. Anyway, will try to post a sample (to this thread?) tomorrow when I find the disks.....in the meantime, thanks to you guys for trying to help.

[RedRocketSr]

gotcha... for the future, a little lesson I was taught.. try to record a little low and then you can normalize to 95% in editting. If this is the wrong approach, someone please educate me.

Brett

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

gotcha... for the future, a little lesson I was taught.. try to record a little low and then you can normalize to 95% in editting. If this is the wrong approach, someone please educate me.

Brett

You are correct in the 24 bit world although for 16 bit I believe you want the levels high.

[nihilistic0]

Yea, you want those levels as high as you can get them when recording 16 bit

[pfife]

gotcha... for the future, a little lesson I was taught.. try to record a little low and then you can normalize to 95% in editting. If this is the wrong approach, someone please educate me.

Brett

You are correct in the 24 bit world although for 16 bit I believe you want the levels high.

for 24bit, someone much wiser than me said that he tried to get it to peak right around -3dbs...  I still try to get the levels as high as I can, personally.