Hi guys,
First I would like to thank everyone for the support I have received in this forum.
I have gone from a newbie to being able to “make it happen” no matter what is needed to be done with the program material.
I have deliver outstanding results and much of it from rather poor source recordings.
I have gone from just editing; to being the producer, director,editor, and now the host of our local radio show. I setup a mini studio and do my recordings; all done with Audacity.
I have to say the ONLY hic-ups are known issues like forgetting to check to make sure I have the correct audio hardware selected, things like that.
What is still unfortunate is I have no control of the source material quality which is constantly up and down. Some weeks I have a nice, dry, almost “recording booth” quality, the next it may sound like it was recorded in a drainage culvert while rats chewed on the mic cord.
The only thing I really don’t have some kind of FIX for in these recording are room reflection. To remove the reverberation from the recording and a DRY one as the result.
I’m not sure if there is such a filter or technique but it would sure be very useful to me.
Thanks everyone.
It would be useful for everybody.
#1
The Four Horsemen of Audio Recording (reliable, time-tested ways to kill your show)
– 1. Echoes and room reverberation (Don’t record the show in your mum’s kitchen.)
– 2. Overload and Clipping (Sound that’s recorded too loud is permanently trashed.)
– 3. Compression Damage (Never do production in MP3.)
– 4. Background Sound (Don’t leave the TV on in the next room.)
There are two significant things standing in the way of suppressing echoes: One, there’s no way to recognize an echo because it’s the performer’s own voice arriving at the microphone more than once. And two, most echoes are an infinite number of sound pathways, each changing volume, timing and phase.
There was a trick possible in the early Noise Removal, but it only helped a little and it depended on the performer maintaining exactly the same volume through the whole show. So it was nice to look at, but not a useful tool.
Koz
I think I’ve covered this problem exhaustively in the longest thread in the forum (what was Ian’s topic title, Koz?).
I’ve also came up with a special EQ curve for that particular room.
It is of course the best strategy to avoid these reflections altogether before recording.
I presume that you’ve already installed some damping material.
The second thing is to place the microphone according to the golden division.
If the room is 8.9’ long, the mic should be placed 5.5’ from one end.
Generally spoken, length/width/height *0.618034.
Of course, that’s only true for the ideal case (bare walls) and you’ll better try to find the ideal spot with trial and error.
The next step would be to record the impulse response of the room and to develop a counteracting filter.
Robert
The next step would be to record the impulse response of the room and to develop a counteracting filter.
How would one do that? [sitting in the edge of his seat, pencil and paper ready]
Koz
Yes. Ian is currently the longest thread on the forum 39 chapters and over a year. His initial success was with a Snowball and a padded closet. I’m reasonably sure he’s using a different microphone and he may no longer be using the closet. I don’t know. He didn’t answer the last time I asked about it.
Koz
Thanks Gale, how lazy I am…
Robert
Well, at least I know I’m not a lone. 
Yeah, the actually recording take place as part of the house sound and that is under the the minister of music so I have no say as to how it is done.
I talked to the people that run the house sound and advised the importance of compression on the pastor’s mic. They told me it was built in; come to find out it has some attenuation settings; NOT compression. They didn’t know the difference. 