Clearing Up Live Mud?, I'm new to this game. Options

[wannabeIdontknow...]

Greetings. Consider this my first trial and error project. I've made many errors, I'm sure. But the scene I'm describing was just an informal get together for which the recording is simply an archive and a chance for me to learn how to record and mix.

Finally got my PowerBook G4/FireBox rig set up to get sound on an HD and out of my monitor speakers.

So i took it with me on a recent outing to a cabin in the woods with three friends to record our jamming.

We had three guitars and a bass, no drum. Did some electric and some acoustic, all sent through our amplifiers. Vocals through a PA.

The room was exceedingly small so the sound bounced all over the place. The room was all wood (walls, floors, ceilings) with some through rugs

I recorded off air with two mics, a Rode NT 1 and a Octava 319 which i raised to a couple of feet below the 8 foot cabin ceilings. into Cubase LE.

Anyway, as those of you who know what you are doing are probably cringing at the description so far, I appreciate that and would also appreciate any tips you can relate for the next time.

And as you have probably guessed, the two tracks sound quite muddy, also though the fundamental sounds are all right there. Its just a matter os stripping away what's not needed and then enhancing what's left.

The good news, as loud as the source was and as high as the levels on the ins, the recording did not experience any clipping or other digital hazards.

The bad news is, this recording is quite dirty.

So what I need is some advice on how to clean it up. What steps should I take/try?What filters/effects might be effective to polish it up just a bit?

Thanks for your tips and tricks in advance.

[mortalengines]

You may be able to get rid of Some unwanted "bleed" into mics from other instruments via gating (this will help if since the unwanted source has its own mic & the two signals are "out of phase" with one another. You will probably have to get real surgical with EQ as well, cutting out alot of low end rumble (30-40hz or lower) & just do what you can to remove unwanted frequencies. Most people tend to boost frequencies with an EQ when you can get alot more mileage from cutting unwanted frequencies or frequencies that "clash". Not to sound fatalistic or anything, but I have made alot of really crappy recordings that I tried to fix later & the end result was....while the recording didn't sound AS bad as the original, for all the work that went into it, I would have had better results had I just started over again from the beginning with trying to get a good clean signal. Having said that, here are a few suggestions for the next time you record with your friends:

One thing I found out about recording with cardiod condenser mics is even though they focus on what's in front of them, they will pick up everything else as well (weird reflections off of sheetrock walls, aquarium pump from adjacent room, etc) . I got around this (just recording with ONE mic, mind you) by getting the mic as close to the source as practicable (6" away from an acoustic guitar aimed around the 12th fret) & hanging a VERY thick wool blanket across the room behind the mic. I understand moving blankets work very well too. As for electric guitars, try to isolate them as well as you can. The mics need to be about 1" from the amp grille & toward the edge of one of the speaker cones. I took a class & we actually got the amps into completely different rooms & had the band play with headphones (via a headphone mixer) in the same room as the drummer (vocals on another take) & the results were pretty good. I guess the upshot of this is: isolate your instruments as well as you can & do alot of "close" mic'ing. Unless you have a good room with sonic treatments you will get some unwanted reflections from your mics. This is not to say that you can't get a good room sound from a log cabin but you will have to get creative in how you "treat" the room & experiment a little. Sweetwater.com has a recording forum that was a big help for me when I was trying to use mics. Auralex.com also has a pdf that you can download that explains a little about sonic treatments for rooms. Hope this helps. Good luck. Have fun.

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Fri 7 Apr 2006, 22:57

[wannabeIdontknow...]

Thanks for the great advice. I have experimented a bit with the gate and it seemed a bit like magic cleaning it up.

And especially thanks for the advice on isolation. Some very useful and doable tips.

[lepetitmartien]

Just for the obvious councel to be in the thread: if you want to clear up mud, first record clean

One thing you didn't told us wannabeIdontknowyet (looooooong login sigh) is did you experiment a little with the mic positions before going for the gold?