I created an arrangement of Danny Elfman’s Batman theme from the 80’s films for use in a series of videos I was using for youtube. However with my basic knowledge of audacity and practically non-existent skill in improving musical audio I could not get the piece anywhere near the standard I need. I basically want the piece to have improved clarity with high quality, distinguished notes without the annoying reverb and fuzziness created through recorded a loud acoustic piano in a living room with a mid level mic as I do not own a midi connector for my keyboard (I probably should get one). So I ask if anyone could kindly edit the piece for me to improve the sound quality to something closer to a midi style recording instead of the reverb nonsense I currently have? Possible tell me which attributes and effects you used to improve it so that I might do it myself in the future. Thankyou. (File attached)
annoying reverb and fuzziness created through recorded a loud acoustic piano in a living room
Annoying reverb and fuzziness is permanent. It’s one of the ways to kill a show. It’s number one!
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.)
Koz
MIDI isn’t sound. It’s machine control. “Push this key hard and hold it for six seconds and then release.” MIDI doesn’t care whether the key makes sound or not. Just so long as the key goes down for six seconds, life is good.
When you make a MIDI recording, you’re actually recording the MIDI “Piano” inside your computer. If you do that to three different computers, you may get three different pianos.
Don’t fall in love with recording your keyboard MIDI in Audacity. It can’t do that.
Koz
Unfortunately the piano is out of tune. That can’t be fixed in the recording. The only way to fix that is to re-record with a piano that is in tune.
Reverb can be minimised by opening the top of the piano and placing the microphone (preferably 2 microphones) on stands so that they are poking down into the open top. If you don’t have stands tall enough to do that, you could try removing the board on the front of the piano below the keyboard and place the microphone(s) close to the corners of the iron frame, though this may pick up more mechanical noise from the hammers and pedals.
I do not own a midi connector for my keyboard
You have an electronic keyboard in addition to your acoustic piano?
I’m sure it has an audio output (or headphone output). If you like the sound you can record it directly with no room sound.
Does your soundcard/interface have a line-level input? (I’m assuming you have some sort of audio interface if your definition of “mid level” mic is the same as mine… i.e. A stage or studio mic with an XLR connector.)
Electronic keyboard headphone out to computer Stereo Line-In is how I did my demo sound clips.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/organfinale.mp3
http://www.kozco.com/tech/piano2-CoolEdit.mp3
If your computer doesn’t have a good stereo Line-In (most current computers don’t), then you can use a USB adapter such as the Behringer UCA-202.
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo-650.jpg
If you’re stuck recording an out-of-tune mechanical piano in a noisy room with echoes, then you may be there a long time. Recording engineers would have trouble with that.
Koz