Marc,
That is a really fascinating recording from Borneo! I love it just
as it is, fly and all. It sounds like some sort of weird games
arcade with all those whizzing and tapping sounds.
First off, whatever you do, save your original recordings and only
work from copies.
It is easy to bring up the volume of the doves by using a plug-in
such as apQualizer by apulSoft (used to be called apEQ). On the
apQualizer live window you can see exactly where the frequencies are
happening and either boost them or suppress them using one of the
adjustable filters e.g. 'Peaking EQ'. When you are satisfied with
the sound, in the plugins menu you then click 'Bounce' (which means
'Apply'). And save.
So your workflow need not be difficult. Select some wanted tracks,
tweak them perhaps only using apQualizer, then burn to a CD using
Toast where you then set the gaps between the tracks at 0 seconds and
add crossfades between the tracks to whatever length you want e.g. 5
or 10 seconds.
Ableton Live 8 looks like it is designed for live musicians, might be
too complicated for your Borneo sound needs?
Audacity may not take plug ins, my version does not.
Peak is OK on a Mac as a sound editor, it takes plug ins and allows
mixing. I am sure there are many other fairly basic 2 track sound
editors that will let you mix in additional sounds. You could also
do mixing using a multi-track editor. In Peak, if I was going to add
in a single sound e.g. a monkey calling, I'd select the sound clip,
add say 5 second fades at start and end, copy the clip. Then in the
master track I'd put the pointer where the monkey would be starting,
then go to DPS - Mix. In the Mix window I'd select 50%. Then I
would have to increase the volume again for just that mixed section,
so that it matches the rest of the track. This is a long way around
to do what a multi-track editor can do more easily, but it does work
well for simple mixing.
To be valuable in the future as an ambience recording of a vanishing
environment, I would suggest fairly minimal editing and mixing.
Just my thoughts!
Vicki
On 23/11/2011, at 10:09 PM, mrmarcanderson wrote:
> I have recently been recording a lot of soundscapes with my 2 x
> AT4022's, Fostex FR2-LE and parallel boundary array, and I think
> I'm finally making some progress. I'm now ready to start processing
> some files and would appreciate if some could share their advice/
> experience on the best way to approach it. I have been reading
> through the forums and it has been very helpful - but I thought it
> might be good for other newbies like myself to see a simplified
> outline of a typical post-processing workflow.
>
> I imagine there are many different approaches depending on what
> tools are available and what one is trying to achieve - in my case
> I have Izotope RX2, Audacity and Live 8, decent studio monitors/
> headphones - and I would like to produce a CD or digital download
> album of natural soundscapes, with a number of tracks seamlessly
> blending into one another.
>
> 1) When it comes to removal of unwanted sounds, adding gain,
> equalizing, noise removal etc - In which order do you do them and why?
>
> 2) If I wanted to copy a specific sound from one recording and add
> it to another - how could I blend it effectively?
>
> 3) Regarding mastering a CD, does one need a dedicated program or
> could I use my existing software ( Izotope RX2, Audacity and
> Ableton Live 8 Lite) ?
>
> I have uploaded an unedited 2 minute sample recording from Kubah
> National Park, Sarawak, Borneo -
>
> http://soundcloud.com/marcanderson/kubah-national-park-sarawak
>
> Feel free to download and show me what you can do with it re:
> editing! I would be particularly interested in bringing out the low
> frequency soft coo's of the green pigeon (easier to hear with
> headphones) and the barbet rhythm, and also reducing the volume of
> the cicadas.
>
> Thanks in advance for any tips!
>
>
> Marc Anderson
>
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