“TASCAM DR5 PEAKY NOTES” UPDATE Aug. ?, 2016 - HOW TO DEAL WITH PEAKY NOTES by Black Dog Bluez
Recording my own acoustic guitar and vocal performances on one track, in one take, with one of the least expensive recorders, the Tascam DR-05. Then editing with Audacity. Results click here–> https://soundcloud.com/blackdogsongs
The Lo-Fi Challenge…
Recording with a Tascam DR5 stand-alone portable linear PCM recorder (Version 2 with current updates):
Well after all my Audacity trials and errors I now give up and am just releasing my songs straight with no editing… not sure what went wrong but it seemed the more I edited the worse things got, may be the recorder? May be the recorders mics? …I don’t know? It may even be Audacity? (??!) Anyway I now set my recorder’s settings to MP3 128k, what all the online players play at and will convert what ever you upload to. I also record in mono and set my mic input volume full up to “90” as high as it will go and use the built in limiter to keep it from clipping… This way I get the volume up enough without having to deal with the peaks (and editing)… I just watch to make sure I’m right around clipping, moving back and forth from the mic as necessary. This way everything is up, volume wise, and what goes too high gets reduced by the limiter.
It’s raw but pure. No compressor altering any of the nuances which is probably never good on intimate acoustic performances anyway. Though if volumes between lows and highs were a problem (or could be approached differently than limiting) I think this could be dealt with by something like an automatic fader of some sort… Which I think is a pay-only plugin exclusive to Pro-Tools (which I don’t have). Short of this, the limiter (including the Audacity Limiter) is probably the best choice from what I know …at this point.
Also It seems I have less floor noise compared to recording at a lower input level then having to edit everything back up (not sure on that though).
My recorder (the Tascam DR5) also has high pass filter which I don’t use because it sounds better without it. I do have some esses here and there though, which is about the only thing editing could improve … At this point, the less I have to tinker with a computer the better I like it, and probably the less the song gets degraded!
Then, I use MP3 Direct Cut (an MP3 non degrading editor) to trim and fade the ends, and check the volumes. Sometimes lowering a peak or two …or the overall volume when there are excessive peaks hitting zero and ‘normalizing’ shows song to be maxed at zero. I also confirm/check volume (number/value) with MP3 Gain (93 or higher is sufficient volume IMO). Unfortunately MP3directcut does not give a volume value.
NOTE: Sometimes MP3gain will show a song to be clipping when MP3directcut does not. MP3diectcut will show peaks to be below zero - ‘not clipping’ with it’s “normalize” feature - which allows you to evaluate and/or adjust volumes. This volume discrepency I assume is just a difference in exactly where these programs consider clipping to be … I side with MP3directcut’s analysis as the final authority on what is clipping.
Will update if things change.
FYI: Check your MP3s with the free downloadable freeware “MP3gain” and for confirmation of “clipping” — “MP3directcut”… you’ll be suprised how much ear numbing distortion you’ve been listening to…
Section 3E5.2:
Using multiples of six as the value of each letter of the alphabet… A = 6, B = 12, etc…
C 3 O 15 M 13 P 16 U 21 T 20 E 5 R 18 = 111 x 6 = 666!
In closing, demand grid-less electro-smog-less life! Getting old does not suck, getting stupid does. I’m fifty and I can still touch my knees! … If you’ve read this far you have the attention span of a salamander … I like that!; Thanks… to all the NSA computers ensuring none of us are tourists… a real world-wide threat. Flying everywhere, never happy to be here now… So that is the challenge folks! To be here now, as you are. Thanks for that… being here now… although by now I’m not here with you… I’ve become a bird and have flown the coupe …that’s me outside your window now.
We become unhealthy-techno junkies the further we are removed from nature.
Black Dog Bluez… (Lost Here … and going mad!) https://soundcloud.com/blackdogsongs