Topic: Could someone give me a crash course in processing, please?

[powermonkey]

Taped my first show last night, and I want it to sound as good as possible!

I've backed up the raw, completely untouched wavs in two places on my PC and on a DVD, and I've got my hands on Sony Soundforge.

That's about the extent of my knowledge.

I'm happy with the recording levels - the meters on my R09 hovered around 20 (give or take a bit) throughout, but I believe I need to normalise - at this point, i'm a bit lost though.

Any help? (Would it be useful for me to post a sample, and a pic of the waveform?)

Also, how would I go about trying to minimise the disruption caused by having to hop out of my seat at fairly regular intervals for people going to the bar and whatnot? I kept the mics pointing in the right direction as consistently as possible, but I couldn't avoid the occasional 'Excuse me, mate' and 'cheers, mate'...

[stirinthesauce]

Taped my first show last night, and I want it to sound as good as possible!

I've backed up the raw, completely untouched wavs in two places on my PC and on a DVD, and I've got my hands on Sony Soundforge.

That's about the extent of my knowledge.

I'm happy with the recording levels - the meters on my R09 hovered around 20 (give or take a bit) throughout, but I believe I need to normalise - at this point, i'm a bit lost though.

Any help? (Would it be useful for me to post a sample, and a pic of the waveform?)

Also, how would I go about trying to minimise the disruption caused by having to hop out of my seat at fairly regular intervals for people going to the bar and whatnot? I kept the mics pointing in the right direction as consistently as possible, but I couldn't avoid the occasional 'Excuse me, mate' and 'cheers, mate'...

Practice, practice, practice.  There is no real crash course on post work.  It is all subjective on what you want out of your recording and what sounds good to you.  Play around and see what you like.  Read the manual.  If you want to normalize, search for the subject on that in your manual. 

FWIW, 2 channel ambient, not much post to do on that.  Normalize, resample, dither as needed.  Maybe some eq'ing if that is your cup of tea.  Your greatest difference on getting your recording to sound better, when ambient recording, is to improve your source (your master recording).  Meaning, location, location, location, followed by your tools (mics>pre>ad).

No quick way of making something good, without knowing exactly what it is you think is good or not and how to achieve that process.  Poor recordings are salvageable, if you know what needs salvaging.  Your best bet is research on the subject and lots of practice. 

Sorry, this is probably not the answer you where hoping for but it is my advice or rather $.02.

-Jon

[Church-Audio]

Taped my first show last night, and I want it to sound as good as possible!

I've backed up the raw, completely untouched wavs in two places on my PC and on a DVD, and I've got my hands on Sony Soundforge.

That's about the extent of my knowledge.

I'm happy with the recording levels - the meters on my R09 hovered around 20 (give or take a bit) throughout, but I believe I need to normalise - at this point, i'm a bit lost though.

Any help? (Would it be useful for me to post a sample, and a pic of the waveform?)

Also, how would I go about trying to minimise the disruption caused by having to hop out of my seat at fairly regular intervals for people going to the bar and whatnot? I kept the mics pointing in the right direction as consistently as possible, but I couldn't avoid the occasional 'Excuse me, mate' and 'cheers, mate'...

The best advice I can give is always save your original file first then make a copy and work with that. If you dont like things in the end and you shut down your program you can't undo your changes. So always save a backup copy. I think less processing is more. The least amount  of eq or normalization you do the better. You have to start with a good set of speakers ones that you can trust and know sound good. Then you can be objective about things like eq.

[powermonkey]

I'm really pleased with the sound (thanks to a pair of most excellent mics!  ) so no worries on that score. Levels are good, and there are only a couple of spots I'm not wild about (like taking off my scarf at the beginning, rubbing the mics inadvertantly) I should be able to get away with that just by reducing the volume a tad.

I've backed up the raw 24/48 wavs, now I'm joining them up. I'm not sure about EQ... if I want to test how it sounds on my proper speakers (Kef iQ3's) then I need to burn a CD, so I need to convert the file to 16/44.1.

Will it make any difference if I get an EQ I'm happy with using the 16bit version, and then just apply the same EQ settings to the 24bit? I'm getting a DVD-Audio player soon, so I want a full-quality version.

Also, what order should I do everything? Would I be right in thinking:  EQ > Normalise > covert to 16bit?

[Church-Audio]

I'm really pleased with the sound (thanks to a pair of most excellent mics!  ) so no worries on that score. Levels are good, and there are only a couple of spots I'm not wild about (like taking off my scarf at the beginning, rubbing the mics inadvertantly) I should be able to get away with that just by reducing the volume a tad.

I've backed up the raw 24/48 wavs, now I'm joining them up. I'm not sure about EQ... if I want to test how it sounds on my proper speakers (Kef iQ3's) then I need to burn a CD, so I need to convert the file to 16/44.1.

Will it make any difference if I get an EQ I'm happy with using the 16bit version, and then just apply the same EQ settings to the 24bit? I'm getting a DVD-Audio player soon, so I want a full-quality version.

Also, what order should I do everything? Would I be right in thinking:  EQ > Normalise > covert to 16bit?

In a mastering studio yes in your living room NO. I think your perfectly fine using the same settings for different bitrates. That being said always give it a quick listen after the processing on the 24 bit wav and see what you think. That's the beauty of computer editing you can always hit undo..

[powermonkey]

Thanks for the advice!

Right. I've joined up the files in soundforge, but now when I try to save the new file I get this message:

"An error occurred while saving one or more files. The file being rendered has exceeded the maximum size allowed for the selected format'.

Errr, help?

It's a wav in 24/48 Stereo... is there some Soundforge setting I need to fix, does anyone know?

 

*edit* D'oh! Never mind - I've used the wonders of the search button - I'll have to chop the file into smaller bits at some point.

[Church-Audio]

Thanks for the advice!

Right. I've joined up the files in soundforge, but now when I try to save the new file I get this message:

"An error occurred while saving one or more files. The file being rendered has exceeded the maximum size allowed for the selected format'.

Errr, help?

It's a wav in 24/48 Stereo... is there some Soundforge setting I need to fix, does anyone know?

 

*edit* D'oh! Never mind - I've used the wonders of the search button - I'll have to chop the file into smaller bits at some point.

You got it.