Reducing atmosphere in live recordings -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Reducing atmosphere in live recordings Posted by: Hawkeye42 Date:11/26/2000 4:09:00 PM I have some really rare live blues recordings, and I'm trying to tone-down the room echo, especially on the vocals. I have the Noise Reduction plug-in trial version, but I'm not sure of what settings to use, or if there's a more effecient way to go about it. Anyone have some ideas? THX
Subject:Re: Reducing atmosphere in live recordings Reply by: Jeff_Lowes Date:11/29/2000 12:14:00 AM What you want to do is not a simple chore, but I can offer a couple of ideas that might help a little. First of all, when you say 'echo', I am assuming that you mean reverb or ambience. Removing an echo or delay from a mix is next to impossible - removing any one instrument or voice from a mix is next to impossible. Noise reduction algorithms work favorably on steady (background) noise - and not so well on dynamic material. To reduce the reverb effect, you can try one or both of the following: 1) Highlight a portion of your program which contains ONLY room ambience (not talking, etc.) just reverb. Open the noise reduction program and check "capture noiseprint". Click on preview. NR will do its thing and gather noise print info. You then need to save the current NR settings (right click near the bypass box and select 'save current') and close NR. Next, highlight a portion of the program you want to practice NR on and re-open NR. Click on preview - make sure that the Real-time box is checked (I am assuming here that you are using DirectX NR) and adjust the amount of N/R to see how your program is affected. Start with the attack and release settings at 50 and adjust either way depending upon the results (I have found that an attack speed of around 50 and a release speed up to around 85 or so usually works pretty well. Play with the FFT settings - its worth your while to see how they react. By the way, I hope you have a fast computer. There are really no rules to using NR, it just depends on what works (or doesn't). If you find a combination that gives you the results you are after, save the settings (Save As), close NR and highlight the portion of your program that you want NR to affect then re-open NR and click OK. If you can't get it to work out, you might try playing with Vinyl Restoration. If you over-use NR, you will find that you have removed alot of highs and probably sucked the life out of your recordings. 2) You might try an old live sound trick I used to use on vocals in reverberant rooms (gyms, halls, etc.). Pull up the Reverb program and dial in a small, somewhat dead-sounding reverb. Add in just enough to start counteracting the larger, less desireable natural reverb. You can use the high and low-cut features to tune your verb. Another thing you might try is to determine the dominant frequency/ (ies) of the unwanted ambience and build a notch filter (high Q - narrow bandwidth) to try to cut some of those frequencies. Keep in mind, though, that your filter will affect these frequencies across the board (ALL of your program material) unless you painstakingly process only those sections of your music where the excessive ambience annoys you the most. Good luck! Jeff Lowes On-Track Recording Fill Miller wrote: >>I have some really rare live blues recordings, and I'm >>trying to tone-down the room echo, especially on the >>vocals. I have the Noise Reduction plug-in trial version, >>but I'm not sure of what settings to use, or if there's a >>more effecient way to go about it. Anyone have some ideas? >>THX

What you want to do is not a simple chore, but I can offer a couple
of ideas that might help a little.

First of all, when you say 'echo', I am assuming that you mean
reverb or ambience. Removing an echo or delay from a mix is next to
impossible - removing any one instrument or voice from a mix is next
to impossible. Noise reduction algorithms work favorably on steady
(background) noise - and not so well on dynamic material. To reduce
the reverb effect, you can try one or both of the following:
1) Highlight a portion of your program which contains ONLY room
ambience (not talking, etc.) just reverb. Open the noise reduction
program and check "capture noiseprint". Click on preview. NR will do
its thing and gather noise print info. You then need to save the
current NR settings (right click near the bypass box and select 'save
current') and close NR. Next, highlight a portion of the program you
want to practice NR on and re-open NR. Click on preview - make sure
that the Real-time box is checked (I am assuming here that you are
using DirectX NR) and adjust the amount of N/R to see how your
program is affected. Start with the attack and release settings at 50
and adjust either way depending upon the results (I have found that
an attack speed of around 50 and a release speed up to around 85 or
so usually works pretty well. Play with the FFT settings - its worth
your while to see how they react. By the way, I hope you have a fast
computer. There are really no rules to using NR, it just depends on
what works (or doesn't). If you find a combination that gives you the
results you are after, save the settings (Save As), close NR and
highlight the portion of your program that you want NR to affect then
re-open NR and click OK. If you can't get it to work out, you might
try playing with Vinyl Restoration. If you over-use NR, you will find
that you have removed alot of highs and probably sucked the life out
of your recordings.
2) You might try an old live sound trick I used to use on vocals
in reverberant rooms (gyms, halls, etc.). Pull up the Reverb program
and dial in a small, somewhat dead-sounding reverb. Add in just
enough to start counteracting the larger, less desireable natural
reverb. You can use the high and low-cut features to tune your verb.

Another thing you might try is to determine the dominant frequency/
(ies) of the unwanted ambience and build a notch filter (high Q -
narrow bandwidth) to try to cut some of those frequencies. Keep in
mind, though, that your filter will affect these frequencies across
the board (ALL of your program material) unless you painstakingly
process only those sections of your music where the excessive
ambience annoys you the most.

Good luck!
Jeff Lowes
On-Track Recording

Fill Miller wrote:
>>I have some really rare live blues recordings, and I'm
>>trying to tone-down the room echo, especially on the
>>vocals. I have the Noise Reduction plug-in trial version,
>>but I'm not sure of what settings to use, or if there's a
>>more effecient way to go about it. Anyone have some ideas?
>>THX