Hello everyone, first of all thank you for maintaining this forum thanks to which I am trying to learn the basics of audio editing.
Here is a question I have already seen, and already explored on my part before asking for your help: I recorded a concert with two different devices (dictaphone and mobile phone) and the result is very different but disappointing in both cases: very saturated with the telephone with a muffled effect, and presence of static/crackling sounds with the dictaphone (unfortunately I was seating in front of stadium speakers which is the worst case…). I tried the equalizer and normalization functions without much success, this improved the overall listening sensation but did not provide a better perception of the voice nor a better reduction of parasitic noise (which I was not able to separate from the track as background noise unfortunately). Do you have any tips for making listening slightly more enjoyable? (reduce saturation and very annoying crackling)?
I am attaching a sample recorded with each device to illustrate my request
Thank you in advance for your valuable help,
Hy I m sorry but there is no solution. Its impossible to improve a saturated sound. I mean since the saturation overwhelm the microphone capacity you can consider that the sound is not registered. Its a matter of fact. you can only hope to merge it with another sound of the same concert taken at a low level.
Live recording is “difficult”. Usually what we hear at the normal seating position, even though it may sound fantastic live, doesn’t sound good when played back through a pair of speakers or headphones.
With unamplified acoustic music you can usually get a pretty good recording with the microphone(s) near the stage or near the conductor. (For good results you need directional microphones.)
With a “big” amplified show you can usually get a good recording with the microphone near the speakers, especially outdoors where there is no “room sound”. But your microphone & recording setup has to be able to handle the loudness. (Usually the PA system is “mono” with the same sound coming from all the speakers.)
With smaller amplified shows, half the sound comes out of the PA system and half the sound comes from the stage so it’s virtually impossible to get a good amateur recording.
Professional live recordings of amplified music are close-mic’d and multitracked so it’s very similar to studio recording. Additional mics & tracks are used to pick-up audience & room sound and those tracks can be faded up and down as appropriate throughout the performance.
P.S.
Soon, AI may be able to fix-up a bad recording by essentially creating/generating an entirely new “recording”. It can already make a song with Frank Sinatra or Johnny Cash singing a Lady GaGa song, etc.
Usually what we hear at the normal seating position, even though it may sound fantastic live, doesn’t sound good when played back through a pair of speakers or headphones.