Topic: mix board and audience feed

[panther65]

I just recorded a show that was in mono and took the left channel out of the soundboard into my Tascam HD-P2 and the right channel from a Beyer microphone into the deck. The board channel is quite a bit hotter than the mic channel. How would I mix in the audience channel with the board channel so that the mic provides a bit of room feel? I currently use Audacity for most of my editing.
The board guy suggested this and it sounded like it would be easy, but I'm new at matrix recording, if this would even qualify as a matrix recording. Any help would be appreciated.

[Shawn]

sure this is still a matrix. it's just going to be in mono. here are the steps I'd take.

• 1. import the track into audacity.
• 2. split the stereo track (click the down arrow next to the track name and select "split stereo track").  you'll now have 2 seperate tracks.
• 3. make the SBD track mono (click the down arrow next to the track name and select "mono")
• 4. make the AUD track mono (click the down arrow next to the track name and select "mono")
• 5. normailze both sources to 0db (If you use audacity I assume you know how to do this already)
• 6. Mix the tracks using the track faders (keep in mind there is a summing effect)

the mixing part is all about using your ears. One method you can use that works for me sometimes is to turn the either the audience track or the SBD track all the way down and then turn it up slowly until you get a sound that you like. Really the key is to just play around with it until you find something you like. I can elaborate on this if need be, but if you've used audactiy a bit this should get you going.

[cleantone]

That would work. Just for another opinion...

I would skip step 5.

I do not use audacity but you may need to slide one track forwards or backwards in time to alighn them propery before rendering a mix. You do this to make sure there is no audible delay and then to find the lesser of all evils in terms of phase effects that combining the signals can cause. Once your happy with them jiving together adjust the levels until you like what you hear. Make certain to avoid being too loud with the sum. Then process this into either a mono or dual mono track. Be certain your not clipping with the rendering of the files. Then if you want to normalize to 100% or 99% I would recommend doing it at this point. Chop it into songs and your good to go.

[Shawn]

That would work. Just for another opinion...

I would skip step 5.

I do not use audacity but you may need to slide one track forwards or backwards in time to alighn them propery before rendering a mix. You do this to make sure there is no audible delay and then to find the lesser of all evils in terms of phase effects that combining the signals can cause. Once your happy with them jiving together adjust the levels until you like what you hear. Make certain to avoid being too loud with the sum. Then process this into either a mono or dual mono track. Be certain your not clipping with the rendering of the files. Then if you want to normalize to 100% or 99% I would recommend doing it at this point. Chop it into songs and your good to go.

good points. normalizing before mixing may not be the best approach.

+T

[panther65]

By turning it up or down and mixing, do you mean using the "gain" sliders for each channel?

[cleantone]

Yeah I assume. As I said I do not use Audacity. Traditionally (that sounds funny) you would use a multitrack software to make a mix. Even though your only using two mono track this is a mix.

6. Mix the tracks using the track faders (keep in mind there is a summing effect)

This sounds like it is set up like a traditional (basic) multitrack session. If there are faders I would start by turning them both down. Then bring up the stonger (sounding) of the two sources until the levels are about -3 or -5 at peak. Look for the louder sections if your able.

Then bring up the other source while listening to playback. Add it in to taste (until it sounds best) while still making sure not to have your levels going to 100%. Once you have a good sound just make sure the loudest passages are not clipping. Then you would process (bounce, render, whatever) it into either a stereo (dual mono) or a mono track. If the peak's of that final track are not at or over 100% (0vu) your probably good to go. If they are well under that you may want to normalize to 99% or 100% peak volume.

This is a very simplified example. Once your better at the workflow you may try automating levels when needed, adding effects like EQ or compression, or whatever makes it sound good to you. Oh and also you probably want to archive the untouched tracks for future remixing once you have honed your chops.

[panther65]

Sorry about my lack of understanding. I split the tracks into to seperate tracks so that I can manipulate the gain of each, and have made both of them mono. I still can't quite figure out how to now "blend" the left channel with the right so that the audience feed is blended with the soundboard feed in one mono channel. Would I cut and paste one channel into the other?

[Shawn]

when you export the wav file they will be mixed together.

[panther65]

Thank you for all your help.