Topic: Right channel hiss, left channel good, can i delete right and double left

[bluntforcetrauma]

hello please help
I recorded Colin Hay

I recorded an acoustic set with DPA 4022 right channel hiss throughout recording

BUT left channel is good.  Can i delete right channel and some how double the left channel.  It might make it mono style

but with it being an acoustic show it does not sound like it is too much different

help please

i use PEAK for editing

thanks

[page]

Sure, you could do that. (I don't know the actual command in Peak, but look around for a duplicate track option and select just the left channel)

Is the right channel just hiss, or is it music plus hiss?

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

It will DEFINITELY make it "mono style."

But yes you can do it.

If you'd like you can run the mono version through some sort of stereo simulator or imager.

[junkyardt]

do you have any parts at the beginning or end of the recording where there is no music, little crowd noise, pretty much only the hiss? if so, you can gather a noise profile from this section and use it to run noise reduction on the whole recording. it might work. i've used this method to successfully remove hiss from a SBD recording before, but you have to sort of luck out into getting a section on your recording from which you can get an accurate noise profile of the hiss.

[acidjack]

^^ this is technically good advice, though frankly I have never been able to get it to really work like I want.

Do you know what caused the hiss?  Sounds like something with your pre. FWIW I have a pre in the shop now because it caused a ton of hiss on both channels with my DPAs.  The thought was that the electronics in the XLRs may not play nice with some pres although admittedly, that makes little sense to me.

[kirk97132]

Don't know the Artist or more importantly the venue BUT you'd be surprised how many rooms are mixed as mono and the stereo SBD feed you get is actually two mono channels. 

[page]

Don't know the Artist or more importantly the venue BUT you'd be surprised how many rooms are mixed as mono and the stereo SBD feed you get is actually two mono channels.

Concur

[bluntforcetrauma]

Sure, you could do that. (I don't know the actual command in Peak, but look around for a duplicate track option and select just the left channel)

Is the right channel just hiss, or is it music plus hiss?

its music plus hiss.  but the left channel no hiss

[bluntforcetrauma]

do you have any parts at the beginning or end of the recording where there is no music, little crowd noise, pretty much only the hiss? if so, you can gather a noise profile from this section and use it to run noise reduction on the whole recording. it might work. i've used this method to successfully remove hiss from a SBD recording before, but you have to sort of luck out into getting a section on your recording from which you can get an accurate noise profile of the hiss.

yes i did start recording well before the music began and you can hear a hiss on the one channel.  its like when you turned something up to loud without any music and you get hiss. but its just hiss on one channel all the way thru the show.

no hiss on left channel.


what kind of noise reduction

like soundsoap--i dont own it just heard of it.

[acidjack]

Yeah, you may want to have your Sax checked out.  Sounds more like an issue there, or in the deck.

[junkyardt]

what kind of noise reduction

like soundsoap--i dont own it just heard of it.

not familiar with Soundsoap, I use Cool Edit Pro. if you have access to CEP, set it so you are only viewing a small section of the file, the section that has only the hiss and as little else as possible. make sure you are only highlighting/viewing the bad channel. go to Effects > Noise Reduction > Noise Reduction, and Get Profile. it will get a noise profile of the hiss, then save the profile (it saves as an .fft file). then go back to the full file, go to Noise Reduction again, and Load Profile. press 'preview' so it plays the file, and play with the graph, dragging the line up or down to find the sweet spot where the hiss is reduced/gone but the music is unaffected. run the reduction on the whole file, and see if you like the results. this may not necessarily work, but if your hiss is a consistent sound throughout the whole show that never changes, it might well work. a de-hissed stereo recording will certainly sound better than any result you will get by going to mono. it's worked for me in the past.

[cybergaloot]

Don't know the Artist or more importantly the venue BUT you'd be surprised how many rooms are mixed as mono and the stereo SBD feed you get is actually two mono channels.

Concur

There's a good reason for the board to run mono in most small clubs. Most of the audience wont be in a good position to hear stereo and will loose some of the information coming out of the most distant speaker stack. It will make it sound off with some instruments accentuated above others. In a small room you aren't getting a full mix anyway, they are just bringing the quieter instruments up to the level of the louder ones. That doesn't mean that what you hear is "mono." The PA is mixing with the ambient sound from the stage and creating "stereo" of a sort.

BTW, I don't understand why some people go crazy for soundboards. Sure the sound is usually clearer but the sound will be off except for the biggest of venues. The soundman is mixing for what he hears and that includes what is coming off the stage itself. I guess the exception would be acoustic acts where they are bringing all the levels up.

[mattmiller]

BTW, I don't understand why some people go crazy for soundboards. Sure the sound is usually clearer but the sound will be off except for the biggest of venues. The soundman is mixing for what he hears and that includes what is coming off the stage itself. I guess the exception would be acoustic acts where they are bringing all the levels up.

I think people only go crazy for them when their intent is to mix it with an ambient source.  In that case, you get the best of both worlds.  If I had only the ability to record one source, I would never choose the SBD.

[cybergaloot]

BTW, I don't understand why some people go crazy for soundboards. Sure the sound is usually clearer but the sound will be off except for the biggest of venues. The soundman is mixing for what he hears and that includes what is coming off the stage itself. I guess the exception would be acoustic acts where they are bringing all the levels up.

I think people only go crazy for them when their intent is to mix it with an ambient source.  In that case, you get the best of both worlds.  If I had only the ability to record one source, I would never choose the SBD.

I consider that a matrix. That I do like. I just know some folks will go for the SBD over an AUD. It makes no sense to me in most cases.

[page]

BTW, I don't understand why some people go crazy for soundboards. Sure the sound is usually clearer but the sound will be off except for the biggest of venues. The soundman is mixing for what he hears and that includes what is coming off the stage itself. I guess the exception would be acoustic acts where they are bringing all the levels up.

I think people only go crazy for them when their intent is to mix it with an ambient source.  In that case, you get the best option of both worlds.  If I had only the ability to record one source, I would never choose the SBD.

fyp. I grab a sbd for the option and still setup where I normally would.

There is only one venue outside of a giant arena where I'd take a sbd over an audience if I had to pick just one, but the resident sound person consistently produces decent sbd mixes. They are dry, but they sound good.

Don't know the Artist or more importantly the venue BUT you'd be surprised how many rooms are mixed as mono and the stereo SBD feed you get is actually two mono channels.

Concur

There's a good reason for the board to run mono in most small clubs. Most of the audience wont be in a good position to hear stereo and will loose some of the information coming out of the most distant speaker stack. It will make it sound off with some instruments accentuated above others. In a small room you aren't getting a full mix anyway, they are just bringing the quieter instruments up to the level of the louder ones. That doesn't mean that what you hear is "mono." The PA is mixing with the ambient sound from the stage and creating "stereo" of a sort.

also concur.

[cybergaloot]

Back to the original point, I'd say save the original and edit a copy. If it doesn't sound good to you, just throw the copy away. No loss that way.

If your mics were back away from the stage then you probably were getting more stereo effect from room reverb than from the music on the stage if he was solo acoustic. Essentially he and his instrument would be a one point source. If you were at the stage lip the stereo effect might be more pronounced since you would be getting some variation based on how much he moved around.

[bluntforcetrauma]

o you think i should just somehow delete hiss channel and use left channel?

is there a way to delete right channel and copy left channel and put it in its place so both channels are filled with left channel

that sounds stupid in know

but i am trying to save this recording

lmk thanks

[cybergaloot]

Save your original files somewhere and work with a copy. On the copy try deleting the noisy channel and the copy and paste the good channel into its place. Different software have different ways to do this. I know its real easy in Audacity.
You just split the stereo track into two mono tracks
then delete the bad one
then highlight the remaining track
go to edit and choose duplicate
then rejoin the two tracks into one "stereo" file
It will actually be mono since the exact same information will be coming out of both speakers. Like someone said, you can apply an artificial stereo effect but it would probably sound better without that processing.
I just tried it in Audacity to one of my recordings and it took less than a minute. If you don't like the results, blow it away and work on removing the noise in the original recording. For waht its worth, I always save my original files unedited and work with a copy. Who knows, in the future there may be some wonderful software that will make it perfect.

[kirk97132]

I should have been clearer about the mono mixing.  IF....IF the room was being mixed mono with nothing panned at the SBD.  then you could delete the offensive channel and copy the good one with no change at all to your "stereo" SBD feed.  A mono mix really means L & R are exactly the same.  And as cited above, the mics will give much more of stereo field to your sound.  Try it, see if you can tell the difference before you go to any great lengths trying to imitate a stereo sound. 

[kingkita]

Save your original files somewhere and work with a copy. On the copy try deleting the noisy channel and the copy and paste the good channel into its place. Different software have different ways to do this. I know its real easy in Audacity.
You just split the stereo track into two mono tracks
then delete the bad one
then highlight the remaining track
go to edit and choose duplicate
then rejoin the two tracks into one "stereo" file
It will actually be mono since the exact same information will be coming out of both speakers. Like someone said, you can apply an artificial stereo effect but it would probably sound better without that processing.
I just tried it in Audacity to one of my recordings and it took less than a minute. If you don't like the results, blow it away and work on removing the noise in the original recording. For waht its worth, I always save my original files unedited and work with a copy. Who knows, in the future there may be some wonderful software that will make it perfect.

Ive done this before You are right its very easey and solved the problem.

[Shawn]

I always laugh when tapers pretend they don't understand why the average fan likes SBD recordings.

[yousef]

I always laugh when tapers pretend they don't understand why the average fan likes SBD recordings.

I think it would be interesting to see how the average downloader's opinion matched up with that of people who actually attended the show in question - I've pulled lots of board tapes that probably sound nice and clear and clean to someone hearing it for the first time but absolutely rotten to someone who was in the room and remembers that there was also an electric guitar in there...

[cybergaloot]

I always laugh when tapers pretend they don't understand why the average fan likes SBD recordings.

I think it would be interesting to see how the average downloader's opinion matched up with that of people who actually attended the show in question - I've pulled lots of board tapes that probably sound nice and clear and clean to someone hearing it for the first time but absolutely rotten to someone who was in the room and remembers that there was also an electric guitar in there...

Exactly.

A similar but reverse situation happens at the front of the stage at festivals if the sound company hasn't put out fill speakers. At a fest last year the soundman at one stage kept getting complaints from the people who had to be right up front. He'd ask them, does it sound good back here? They all said yes. What people didn't realize was that the promoter had asked that they position the mains up high so they could be heard in the vending area. All the highs were going right over the audience's heads. The sound company hadn't given him any fill speakers. Finally he flipped one monitor over facing the audience and fed it the same mix as the mains. No more complaints.

[willyp523]

  Can i delete right channel and some how double the left channel.  It might make it mono style

A little late to this thread, but I can tell you I had similar issues and did just what you're asking about.  Very simple using Audacity.  I also used a time shift tool for a very small fraction of a second to offset one channel...trying to make it less mono sounding.

You can hear the results here...
http://www.archive.org/details/ragbirds2010-08-21

[bluntforcetrauma]

I will try some of the suggestions with Audacity.  I just downloaded the latest version i will try.

[doodee]

Save your original files somewhere and work with a copy. On the copy try deleting the noisy channel and the copy and paste the good channel into its place. Different software have different ways to do this. I know its real easy in Audacity.
You just split the stereo track into two mono tracks
then delete the bad one
then highlight the remaining track
go to edit and choose duplicate
then rejoin the two tracks into one "stereo" file
It will actually be mono since the exact same information will be coming out of both speakers. Like someone said, you can apply an artificial stereo effect but it would probably sound better without that processing.
I just tried it in Audacity to one of my recordings and it took less than a minute. If you don't like the results, blow it away and work on removing the noise in the original recording. For waht its worth, I always save my original files unedited and work with a copy. Who knows, in the future there may be some wonderful software that will make it perfect.

Ive done this before You are right its very easey and solved the problem.

Unfortunately been there and done that. And the Audacity fix was quick and easy.