Need help fixing a muffled (stereo) live recording

[guitarlum]

Hi,

I just had a great live concert and asked the FOH to record it with my zoom H4n.
The input level seems ok, however I find the track very muffled. Way too much bass, way too little treble.

I already searched and googled a bit, but I'm clearly a bloody beginner when it comes to audio mixdowns.

A snapshot of the live-recording is available at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/326 ... e_orig.wav

Can you please help me fix (improve) the track so I can actually use it within a live video? (overdub)

Best regards
A stoner rock musician

[steve]

Try the "Bass and Treble" effect: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/ba ... reble.html
Turn the bass down a bit and turn the treble up a bit. Use the "Preview" button to test your settings.

If you don't get it right straight away, "Ctrl+Z" to undo.

When you've got it as you want, you will need to "Export" (File menu > Export) to create a normal audio file.
(http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fi ... ialog.html)

[kozikowski]

Way too much bass, way too little treble.

Concerts (and clubs) are bass heavy because everybody knows your shirt has to move in time to the bass player. It's one of the reasons nobody ever walks away from a concert with a good recording. Either they get what you got (and you're insanely lucky) or they get crunchy distortion as the microphone tries to hide under the seat from punishing overload. The H4s are good that way. They have actual attenuators and will record a jet landing with reasonable fidelity.

A local venue just got their sound system "upgraded" to club status and I found the wisdom of wearing earplugs. I also found it almost impossible to understand the lead singer and when dancing, it's really hard to figure out which is the lead beat in a rhythmical sequence. This in turn makes it awkward when your partner and you choose different ones.

If you're a little more adventurous, you might try Effect > Equalization. It's tone controls on steroids.

Select Graphic Eq and it will give you little sliders, low tones to the left, higher ones to the right.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Hold your ears.....