Mastering Live Material

[Autobahn]

Hi there,

Does anyone know of any software or techniques to take a longish live recording and split the individual tracks without having notable gaps in the crowd noise between songs.

ie: I could listen to the whole thing without knowing that the tracks have been split, but still be able to scroll through the various tracks if I want to.

I hope that this doesn't sound to confusing.

Thanks

[TonyB]

I've never seriously recorded on-site for a live band or performance (done it informally for bands just for their own purposes).

However, one way I would go about it is to have a few dedicated "crowd mics."

Place some mics where the crowd will be heard. You can blend these in between the splits that you want to do.

You can have a mic somewhere at/above the front of the stage facing the crowd. Maybe two more ...one left of house and one right of house.

These would be condensers or room mics.

[of course, this doesn't help you if you've already tracked the live performance! ]

[Autobahn]

Thanks Tony...but I probably didn't explain myself properly.

I have the long live performance...there is alot of crowd noise in between songs already. What I'd like to do it split up the long recording into individual tracks for a CD, without having noticeable gaps in the recording if you were to play it straight through.
So:
a) it would sound like a complete concert if you listened from start to end
b) I would be able to skip through the songs if I wanted to

Cheers

[dizzydog]

if you're talking about taking one long file of the live show, and splitting it into several files (one for each song), most CD burning software allows you to insert track markers. then burn without the standard 2-second gaps between songs.

[TonyB]

Yeah, what dizzydog said.

Personally I'd use SoundForge and CD Architect to do that (because I already have this software suite).

SoundForge would allow me to break apart the songs, do proper fading, etc.

CD Architect would allow me to put the songs in the order that I want, space with standard 2-second gap (shorter or longer if I wanted), and write CD-at-once.

[newkid]

Originally Posted by Autobahn

Hi there,

Does anyone know of any software or techniques to take a longish live recording and split the individual tracks without having notable gaps in the crowd noise between songs.

ie: I could listen to the whole thing without knowing that the tracks have been split, but still be able to scroll through the various tracks if I want to.

I hope that this doesn't sound to confusing.

Thanks

the recordings I have just fade out on the audience reaction and then space to teh next track on the cdrom

if you want to be able to pick any track to play you need a quiet gap according to teh cd specs - as i understand how burning cdroms actually works

else you will need one long track

now on a dvd there may be a way to do that

[dizzydog]

a cd player looks for the track marker to jump between songs, not gaps of silence. most burner software has an option to either insert a gap of silence for some length or to leave out the gap between tracks. my basic nero program also lets you view the waveform of a file and insert track marker by clicking where you want to split it. sounds like SoundForge and CD Architect do more than that.

anyway, this assumes you have one big file of the entire show. but if you have individual song files that include fade-outs at the end, then it would be tough to re-edit that into a CD that seamlessly flows between songs. at least it would be for me

[gyps]

Simple really. Assuming you have one long file, as I do. I split the regions between songs, usually close to the start of each song, in Logic and bounce each region as an individual track, in the order A to Z and burn them to disc with no time gap between tracks. I use Toast. When you play the CD, the splits between tracks are seamless but you can select individual tracks if you need to.

[Bigduggieface]

Originally Posted by gyps

I split the regions between songs, usually close to the start of each song, in Logic and bounce each region as an individual track, in the order A to Z and burn them to disc with no time gap between tracks.

Exactly. You can do this with virtually any DAW.

Be sure to set your start/end location points of each song at a snap value (like 1/32). The reason for this is to make sure that there is no gaps or overlaps between the end of one track and the beginning of the next track.

The idea is to have each track flow continuously into the next without any audible glitches, fades, or spaces. Only by specifying the EXACT start and end point of each track can you create the illusion of all of the discrete tracks flowing together without spaces. That's why it's important to use the snap values.

As previously mentioned, make sure you disable any automatic gap spacing in your burning software. Also disable any automatic leveling functions and be sure to choose the "disc-at-once" option to avoid the laser from creating any gaps in your final CD.

[Autobahn]

Thanks a bunch for all your help guys....much appreciated.