Editing Recordings Afterwards

[M-1000]

First of all here's my setup

CSB's > battery box (fixed) > MZ-NHF800 Line In

After I get the show I hook the MD up and run Sonic Stage. I get the .oma track onto my computer and use HiMD Renderer to convert it to .wav. As with line-in recordings the levels are always low and have to be fixed. This is where my problem comes in.

I use a program called Clean! v4.0 to fix up my recordings. I can take out clicks, hums, rumbles, noise, all that good stuff. I can put track marks in with it. I can boost the recording levels to a volume I find acceptable. It sounds quite good when i'm done except for the distortion on high treble volumes. The recording crackles when there is an excess or a loud amount of treble such as the crowd screaming after the song ends or just the music that the mics have recording during the song.

I've heard great, great recordings from CSB's > MD players and I don't understand why I can't get mine to sound close to them. That also brings me to the point about I havn't touched any levels or anything on my MD player. It's basically mics > out-of-the-box player. I've been reading some threads on the levels thing but I am unsure of if this will help my crackling problem at high levels. Maybe it has something to do with the program I am using? Im sure that Clean! isn't meant for this kind of sound editing. Is there possibly any suggestions on a good program to use for editing recordings?

Thanks

[raintheory]

Audacity (Open-Source, I think it's available in the downloads section here) would be a good place to start. Probably the best freeware sound editing program.

[A440]

Another vote for Audacity. I have a fancier non-free program, Adobe Audition, and I find myself using it very rarely because Audacity does everything I need.

Audacity has two functions (under Effects) to raise the level of quiet recordings: Amplify (just what it says--you choose how much) and Normalize (which raises the level of the recording closer to its peak via Audacity's built-in guidelines).

What's probably happening to you now is that your program is amplifying everything, and because the applause is so much louder and/or closer to the mic than the music, it's being amplified to where it overloads. Normalize might amplify with a little more finesse.

The real quest is to get higher levels to start with.

Are you recording with Manual levels? They're much better than the default setting of Automatic Gain Control. Press REC and PAUSE simultaneously (levels shown, blinking 0:00 time display) and then Menu/REC SET/REC Volume and switch to Manual. Then choose a level--I use 20/30, but I have different mics, so you'll need to experiment. Un-PAUSE to start recording.

Unfortunately, the NHF-800 always defaults back to Automatic, so you have to go through that routine with each recording. If you're being stealthy, you can do it all outside the show, leave the unit on Rec-Pause and then un-Pause it either on the unit or with a remote control.

If you can watch the level meters during a show, raise the recording volume so that the peak of the music is between the two little dashes. Don't fidget with it: you'll hear every change, so just find a volume that's usable and leave it alone.

I use various binaural mics with a battery module, and for loud music I rarely have to amplify afterward. For quieter music, raising the manual level--sometimes as high as 25/30--makes a loud enough recording.

One last thing: Which version of SonicStage are you running? Please, for your own sake, upgrade at least to 3.4 (available from Downloads here) or 4.0 from Sony. With 3.4 and above, you can re-upload the tracks if there are any problems. Most older versions--I don't remember 3.2 or 3.3--do not allow that.

SS 3.4 also has a built-in .wav converter that probably works more directly than Hi-MDRenderer, which was Marcnet's genius workaround in the bad old days. I suggest uploading and then converting the tracks you want to .wav in a separate operation. That won't solve your level problems, but should give you optimum conversions.

[greenmachine]

Is the crackling there before editing? If so, you might have set the levels on the recorder too high or the mic can't handle the loudness. If it appears after editing, make sure you never push the levels above the 0dB line.

Also, what does 'battery box (fixed)' mean? Have you been using a defective BB with your mics? If so, it might have damaged them.

[M-1000]

Is the crackling there before editing? If so, you might have set the levels on the recorder too high or the mic can't handle the loudness. If it appears after editing, make sure you never push the levels above the 0dB line.

Also, what does 'battery box (fixed)' mean? Have you been using a defective BB with your mics? If so, it might have damaged them.

CSB's can use two types of battery boxes. One has a bass roll-off filter. It filters out any bass below 120db (I think).