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What to do with Mono soundboard used as bulk of mix?

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adrianf74:
Was at a small room show which was a single acoustic guitar with one mic.  Naturally, the soundboard output was mono (it's a small room). Also recorded was room sound but it's very wookified and doesn't add much since there's nothing not being fed to the sound system.

Two separate recorders were used so there will be clock drift. My general thought is to fade the crowd in and out between sons or wherever else it's required.

What to do with the board feed?  I'm going to Deplosive or Declip in iZotope where they occurred (3 or 4 times). Plan to boost any banter between songs but should any simulated stereo or other such effects be added to liven it up?

Thanks everyone.

Gutbucket:
Inclusion of some room sound will be helpful in placing the performer in the same apparent acoustic space as the audience between songs, and in adding some depth dimension and room to the otherwise dry, upfront and in-your-face monophonic soundboard recording.  You may want to ride the AUD room pair levels if there is a lot of distracting chatter during the performance sections.  But this is probably what you've already planned on doing.

It may help to add a touch of artificial stereo room reverb to the soundboard.  That can help with the blend and make riding of the AUD level less obvious.  And if the wookieness is just too much that might end up doing most of the work in getting the SBD to sound like it is more naturally "in and of the room".  The trick will be to find the right room reverb algorithm and settings to get the artificial 'verb sounding similar to that of a performance in that actual room without the audience noise.  Even if you nail that really well, I'd probably not mute the AUD entirely but just reduce it a lot in level during the music, since it will add a subtle human liveness that even a perfectly tuned and great sounding room reverb will not.

Enjoy the artistic/creative side of taping.

rocksuitcase:
Everyone has varied paths here, but I often do this with a mono SBD/AUD mic mix:
keep the SBD mono and add it in "below" the level of the AUD, almost as a centering filler.
In Audacity, I will ensure the LT/RT tracks are 'mono'd, then import the AUD track, adjusting each pair's levels to be similar.
Playing around with the relationship of SBD/mono vs AUD/stereo to suit your ears. (Generally, it comes out like 25-30% sbd in these cases) ymmv
Than I will export the multi-channel mix to a 2 channel mix and do EQ, Compression, limiting, levelling.

Others should have varying ideas.

Gutbucket:
I'm 100% onboard with Kyle's methodology regarding the majority of AUD/SBD mixes - That is, using the AUD as the primary source and adding just enough SBD, at a significantly lower level, to sweeten vocals and sense of presence as necessary, generally without otherwise processing the mono SBD.  To my taste, many AUD/SBD mixes tend to lean too heavily on the SBD and don't sound as natural as they could/should with a bit more room in there.  That's probably because a taper can't help but focus on the annoying audience chatter portion of a recording (which easily leads to overcompensation with too much SBD), while the same is easier to ignore by other listeners who tend to be more focused on the music rather than the more technical aspects of the recording.

However, for a recording where the AUD portion contains mostly cocktail party chatter and very little sound of primary interest, you'll need way more SBD relative to AUD.  That's when it might help to add a touch of room 'verb to the SBD portion to keep it from sounding flat, sterile, and overly close.  Will generally be best to add the 'verb to the SBD part prior to mixing that with the AUD.. but you can also add most of it SBD and a touch to the overall mix of the two to help blend the two sources and hide the level riding of the AUD a bit better.  Tread lightly though, and double check with a fresh listen later.  The added reverb shouldn't be obvious except in its absence.  It's easy to go overboard.

Even if the AUD is almost all chatter, I think you should keep some small amount of it in there as mentioned previously to improve continuity.  Think Marvin Gaye, What's Goin' On>What's Happening, Brother

https://youtu.be/Y9KC7uhMY9s
^Not the LP version with all the cool background party chatter I intended to link, but an outstanding extended live version with James Jamerson sitting next to Marvin!

nulldogmas:
Rent out the venue, fill it with silent people, play the SBD through the PA, and use mics to record that. Problem solved.

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