Now that the live tracks are in the can

[Gedit]

Over the summer I recorded a four-piece band (drummer, guitar, bass, keys) at four different venues (Tin Angel in NYC, NorthStar in Philly, The Fire in Philly, and World Cafe Live <downstairs> in Philly). I mic'd each show identically - kick and L and R overheads for drums, DI keys, and mic'd the amps for bass and guitar. They only use vocals for talking to the crowd so i split them off the house boards.

The band is now choosing which of the songs from which of the shows they want to use for a live CD compilation. It's been a while since i mastered live stuff (many years - let's say i used to use tape cutter blocks and leave it at that ;p ) so I'd like to know if I need to prep the raw tracks.

For example: working with digital over the past couple of years I'm used to normalizing and/or adjusting the volume on tracks. Should I adjust these tracks to the same relative volume to make mixing easier? Any other suggestions?

I think I'm treading a fine line with this thread in Remote Possibilities versus Mastering but as this is pre-mastering questions I'm taking a gamble with it here.

Thanks for any input.

George

[ghellquist]

I would say it all depends on what program you are using. Obviously the end result is what you want to aim for and on the way make it as simple as possible wihtout destroying the material. Some programs are better at this than others in my humble opinion.

Personally I am very much fond of the functions in Samplitude. Several of the functions seems to be more or less tailormade for the kind of application you are planning here. The very main tool in my usage is the object-oriented editing together with how you link objects together and the various mouse modes. It is sort difficult to describe, much easier to do. I used to try do the same things in ProTools LE but it always took me many times longer time, despite PT beeing considered good at this.

In most programs you would avoid normalizing the individual files, since normalizing often is done either desctructively (ie modifying the input file) or by bouncing a new file. In order to not loose fidelity the bounced file should be 24 or 32 bits, and in my world modifying the input file is a no-no as once done there is no easy way to go back. In Samplitude, normalizing is not destructive and does not generate any bounce files (unless you really want to). It simply sets one of the several gain "pots" there are on playback (which you may modifiy anytime).

My suggestion for you is to do a dry run using your program. Do a quick test of the whole process from start to end.

Gunnar

[T.RayBullard]

Hey George, I highly reccomend samplitude too. As for your question, in all honesty, youll probably get more hits in the mastering section since those guys specialize in this sort of thing..

Originally Posted by Gedit

Over the summer I recorded a four-piece band (drummer, guitar, bass, keys) at four different venues (Tin Angel in NYC, NorthStar in Philly, The Fire in Philly, and World Cafe Live <downstairs> in Philly). I mic'd each show identically - kick and L and R overheads for drums, DI keys, and mic'd the amps for bass and guitar. They only use vocals for talking to the crowd so i split them off the house boards.

The band is now choosing which of the songs from which of the shows they want to use for a live CD compilation. It's been a while since i mastered live stuff (many years - let's say i used to use tape cutter blocks and leave it at that ;p ) so I'd like to know if I need to prep the raw tracks.

For example: working with digital over the past couple of years I'm used to normalizing and/or adjusting the volume on tracks. Should I adjust these tracks to the same relative volume to make mixing easier? Any other suggestions?

I think I'm treading a fine line with this thread in Remote Possibilities versus Mastering but as this is pre-mastering questions I'm taking a gamble with it here.

Thanks for any input.

George

[Gedit]

thanks guys. I'll cross post this over in mastering then.

i'm not really asking about modifying the tracks, just getting them ready to master, which is why i used the volume example above. i watched a buddy use samplitude last weekend. it was simply amazing. i use cubase, wavelab or tracktion depending on the circumstances.

[Jim vanBergen]

Wow, you're bold in pre-mastering tracks. I always give a live CD, the rough mix, to the artists and have them judge based on the "their performances and the audience" knowing that the REAL mix will sound significantly different. It saves me LOADS of studio time...but perhaps you can charge for that?

[Gedit]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

Wow, you're bold in pre-mastering tracks. I always give a live CD, the rough mix, to the artists and have them judge based on the "their performances and the audience" knowing that the REAL mix will sound significantly different. It saves me LOADS of studio time...but perhaps you can charge for that?

jim .. well, i wouldn't call it pre-mastering, though some may. i really just wanted to know if there was any "maintenance" i need to do before i start the mastering.

i am, in fact, giving them a rough mix once they give me the song selections.

-george

[littledog]

I work in Pro Tools, but I assume you can do this in most any program:

When I'm mixing a project that comes from a variety of sessions or venues, once I mix the first song, I'll import it as a stereo track into the next song that I'm mixing. That way I can easily jump back and forth between the completed mix and the one I'm working on to try and get as much of a unified sound as possible.

On the other hand, some projects may actually benefit from NOT trying to smooth out the environmental/ambience differences from site to site. For instance, the track from the small jazz club often SHOULD sound very different from the one recorded at the large outdoor ampitheatre.

[Gedit]

all four recordings were done in small/medium size clubs with maybe 70 people in the crowd, so ambience-wise they are similar, though acoustically they are very different.