[B]A COUGH IN A RECORDING[/B]

[ftngrave]

I have a recording of a string quartet of mine with 2 coughs in it, one of them pretty bad. I want to use this section as an excerpt for something but am going to try to take the coughs out because they are quite annoying as the actual section is slow and soft.

 

I don't know if it matters, but the whole section features the lowest note being the second A below middle C and I don't even think the highest note of the section goes above middle C. Anybody have any ideas for how to edit these out?

 

Should I try cutting it and pasting the parts back together with duplications of the chord where the cough was? I don't know if that's possible for strings. The music is actually slow, continuous chords, there's no gaps for any of the four parts.

 

The other possibility I know of is EQ. I took me a long time once to get low rumblings from another room out of a soft song without altering the vocals. I had to settle for that rumbling being ever so slightly audible in order to keep the vocals how I wanted. I also only have Cubase LE to work with-perhaps my long sessions with EQ has to do with having only four bands to deal with. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[monstermaker]

Depending on whom your intended audience is I'd consider cut and paste. Be a little creative and you can tuck it away. On the other hand, coughs are not that uncommon on classical concert recordings.

[John Sayers]

I'd just grab the cough and turn it down.

[MikeRivers]

I've heard that people have used the Spectrum Editor in Wavelab to remove noises like coughs. I've used it to take out feedback where you have just one frequency, and it might be pretty easy to find something like an automobile horn with it, but a cough might be a little too broad-band to chop out with what's essentially an equalizer with a different set of controls than what we're used to using.

 

I wouldn't go out and buy a copy of Wavelab to save this one piece, but there are other programs (Audition, I think, is one) that have a similar feature and you might just have it and have never tried it. Or maybe you could send the file to someone who has the tools and is willing to give it a shot.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Pour some cough sirup over the hard drive the music is recorded on, or alternatively in your ears. The sound will not be heard anymore after!

 

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[bp]

Look at this - http://www.algorithmix.com/en/renovator.htm

 

I use it often for cleaning live recordings. It's simply amazing.

 

Check your PMs.

[boosh]

Try to cut the same chord from another part of the song or piece and make it a bit longer than the cough part you cut away.

Now crossfade the beginning and end. Must work flawlessly.

[Antman261]

Don't record performances with coughs in them. Unless it sounds cool.

 

 

 

[Ara Ajizian]

I thought this was going to be about the end of Led Zep's "In My Time of Dying."

[MorePaul]

I say paste rhythmic coughs everywhere and tell them you were working with Tuvan sore-throat singers

 

Ok OK

 

Well, I'm certainly no expert, but you might be able to scrub off some of the really big transients in the "burst" to mellow the cough out (pretty much already alluded to above)

If you're gonna copy/paste, perhaps you can do it in smaller-than-note increments (sort of granular synthesis) to make the patch "sonic" as opposed to "musical" (as in overdubbing), but I guess it really depends on the duration of the event

[UstadKhanAli]

 

Try to cut the same chord from another part of the song or piece and make it a bit longer than the cough part you cut away. Now crossfade the beginning and end. Must work flawlessly.

 

 

That's how I would initially approach it as well. I've done this with a single cello successfully before, so hopefully it will help with an ensemble.

[monstermaker]

 

Pour some cough sirup over the hard drive the music is recorded on, or alternatively in your ears. The sound will not be heard anymore after!

 

 

I didn't think of that.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Well, me either, but I still wonder how he got that couch into the recording

 

.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

or was it a sofa?

[MikeRivers]

I read about a concert venue that had a bowl of cough drops in the lobby and encouraged audience members who were feeling a little ticklish in the throat to take a few. I think it was underwritten by Riccola.

[ftngrave]

thanks for the input, the crossfade with the slightly longer section than the gap seems like it will work. I'll give it a shot. funny, one of these 2 coughs is the worst one in the entire 17 minute piece, and a good friend of mine did it two rows in front of me and it jolted me even then.

 

the zeppelin reference made me think of probably my favorite lo fi album, beck's one foot in the grave, which features a quite full, beautiful cough in the song outcome; nothing is done about it, the background singer does it and him and beck just move on to the next line.

[coyote-1]

Good luck! Hope it works for you.

 

thanks for the input, the crossfade with the slightly longer section than the gap seems like it will work. I'll give it a shot. funny, one of these 2 coughs is the worst one in the entire 17 minute piece, and a good friend of mine did it two rows in front of me and it jolted me even then. the zeppelin reference made me think of probably my favorite lo fi album, beck's one foot in the grave, which features a quite full, beautiful cough in the song outcome; nothing is done about it, the background singer does it and him and beck just move on to the next line.

 

There's another cough in a famous recording: the intro to the song "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. A jangly thin guitar, a high-pitch synth whine... and suddenly COUGH.