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Editing Ambience on Live Horn Parts


King Conga

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I have an 8-track live concert that I'm editing that 1 track is a horn, and other wind instruments. The mics on that are close-mic'ed, but they still pick up significant ambiance. Now, while I do want some quality ambiance in the final mix, the source that I'm using for that is 2 suspended AKG 414's about 9' in front of the choir, and there's nothing between the mics and the audience. That ambiance sounds great.

 

So, I could edit the ambiance out of the orchestra track, but it would quite painstaking and time consuming as there are 16 songs to do. Although, I'm thinking I may have answered my own question by virtue of the fact that that particular track was recorded with a pretty low signal because we had no one to monitor that PC we wanted to avoid any digital distortions. Having said that, if/when I amplify those tracks, if I don't edit the ambiance, that too will be significantly louder too; maybe even loud enough to drown out the ambiance that I want to keep on the choir track.

 

So, there's my options. Any suggestions on how to efficiently maximize the quality on all levels?

 

Tanx,

KC

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this is something i have done a lot of, about 250 shows in the last couple years.

 

first you must define your goal. accurate representation? pleasing mix? totally artificial mix?

 

things to try:

 

1. the mics are out of time. you may be able to fix this, or it may become worse. compromise may be required.

 

2. eq the horn track. add some body to it, around 800hz, HP and LP more than you think you should.

 

3. add more ambiance to the horn track. this sounds like it would be counterproductive but often is just the ticket.

 

4. carefully pan and level-adjust the horn track. it may fit just perfect as is.

 

gates and expansion are generally your enemy with this situation; at first you may seem to gain a lot of ground but the artifacts are near impossible to free yourself from. it is a tough road.

 

its better to plan these things out ahead of time, often trumpets dont need mics at all - even if they think they do.

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Tanx DigitMus,

 

That probably would do the trick, but it sounds like quite an expensive animal, which I don't have. I'm using Audition 1.5, which is probably child's play (although it works great for me) to most of the folks in this forum, but I still wanted to hear what solutions the pros would have.

 

Tanx Again,

KC

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