Started mixing the 8 piece close harmony group I recorded a few weeks back. Really enjoying it… after the Free Control stuff with super massive everything, it’s nice to go back to acoustic sounds and 8 mics. I think the plan next time is a pair of mics and a Church in January… even better really as I’ve spend quite a lot of time automating volumes and subtle tunings to compensate for the guys’ (self confessed) lack of preparation. This type of group rely on practice and self balancing via good arrangements.. a stereo recording in a nice space will show up any flaws, but will be a much more honest and better recording…..anyway, that’s a while off.
On one of the takes there was a nasty mic lead crackle I didn’t notice on the session…. we set up and recorded lots but didn’t listen back much: a poor excuse I know, and was pretty annoyed I missed it. Well, thank the lord for Soundtrack Pro’s Noise Print function. For those of you who don’t know, Logic ships with Soundtrack Pro.… not many producers use it as a default audio editor, but it’s super powerful, and in this case the go-to tool to help me clean up the file.
In a nut shell, you find a bit of the file with the flaw on it, but no other signal, make a print of it, then apply the print to the whole file. It’s normally used on hums and hissy stuff, but it made a good enough job of this variable crackle for it to be unnoticeable in context.
Hurrah for Soundtrack Pro.. cheating? nah.. just another lovely thing about computers.
Logic users, give it a go….
..ignore the fact it refers to Final Cut…….once you’re in Soundtrack Pro and save the file , it’ll update your Logic audio file at source.
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