[vmpaul]

So, I've bought a Minidisc to tape some of the shows I'm seeing. Just for my own amusement, not to sell or even trade although I MIGHT trade if it comes up. Basically I've taped a couple of shows at the local coffeehouse this weekend. Quality is pretty good but I know it could be better with some digital enhancement.

The question is....where do I start? I have NO IDEA what direction to go in. Is there anybody out there who can give me some pointers? What end of the EQ do I play with? What am I trying to enhance or reduce? Reduce reverb? Increase tone? I don't even know the terms. Is there anyplace I could read a primer?

Through a friend I have access to SoundStudio and Peak. Sadly, he has very little knowledge of how to use them. I also have access to a zillion VST plug-in's to play with. Are there specific VST's that could help improve the quality?

Any help would be appreciated. I'd even appreciate an e-mail dialogue if anybody feels like sharing.

[GRAHAMUK]

I used to tape a few gigs on DAT when I was at university. The gigs were pretty loud and took place in a moderately large concert hall with a raised stage. I'd stand somewhere near the mixing desk (but far enough away not to be caught by the engineer!) and used a pair of small but high-quality microphones which I mounted on either side of a baseball cap. In general, the sound quality of the raw recording was pretty good, and in addition captured the ambience of the audience well too. I'd sometimes run off a few copies onto cassette for friends and I used an equalizer to "flatten" the sound a little - this usually involved dropping the midrange a little and boosting the bass and top end. I never made any attempt to reduce reverb - as far as I know this is very difficult to do and certainly back then (1990 ish) I had no technology capable. In any case any reverb adds to the "live" feel of the recording. I also taped one or two much smaller gigs in cafes and pubs, but used the same technique. Again for transcribing the recording to cassette I'd use an equalizer, and just set it up by ear to "flatten" the sound a bit. This is pretty easy with a little practice - you don't need to know the terminology, just adjust the equalization until it sounds right to you. You should end up with a smoothly varying curve across the equalizer sliders - if they are up and down all over the place that's unlikely to be correct. I still listen to the recordings occasionally - they sounds pretty good. Remember though, that if you don't capture everything at the source, you cannot get it back later no matter how much you post-process it. So good quality mics are essential.

[tomfrog]

I've been doing live recording on MiniDisc for a few years now. I have a couple of different setups, depending on the concert. Last night I recorded at a concert where I had the band's permission, so I took a line out from the board, recorded in mono on my Sharp MD. Next I will take that recording and play back through a Griffin iMic into Spark LE ( http://www.tcworks.de )
(They also have a free version Spark ME)

Once I have recorded into Spark, I can normalize the levels, then set up a playlist of what I want to keep and then burn a CD from the result.

I've also had good results from a free piece of software from Griffin called
Final Vinyl
http://www.griffintechnology.com/
This is easy to use, and lets you adjust eq on the input, which is great for cutting out rumble or room noise.

Good luck!

[dlefebvre]

I am not an audio expert, I mostly work as a video editor. But here's something that sometimes work. Try a «Parametric Equalizer». It alows you to isolate a particular frequency and either boost it or lower it (Practical to remove a constant hum or buzz). I cannot recomemnd any specific frequency, since it's a case by case process. You can only trust your ears. Good luck.

[booboo]

Get yourself Spark Me from www.tcworks.de, an excellent audio editor at least as good as Peak, and free too!

Find a way of transferring your recordings to your Mac digitally. This may entail borrowing (or buying) a Minidisk player with a digital out. The Phiilps home machines had digital optical outs. you will also need to provide your Mac with a digital audio input. Cheapest way is, I believe, a USB device from Edirol (Roland).

This will enable you to transfer between your Mac and your MD in the digital domain, i.e. without quality loss.

As far as enhancing the tracks is concerned, you really shouldn't attempt to do anything extreme. The best approach is invariably to get the best recording at source. Having said this, a little corrective EQ might be useful - a few dB's either way to the high and low frequencies - or both.

Also, if any particular frequency seems unpleasantly prominent - perhaps due to nasty horn-loaded PA speakers, or poor micrphones - use a parametric EQ to reduce this peak slightly.

Always use as little processing as you feel you can get away with.

Although it might seem like fun to stick on some digital reverb, ask yourself how appropriate this is. It's easy to get seduced by possibilities which ultimately put a distance between the listener and the music.

A couple of late 80's Velvet Underground releases suffer very much from 'corrective' digital processing - the addition of digital reverb and compression. So much so that they sound more like a work-out demo for 80's digital processing, rather than a 60's music recording....

[vmpaul]

Thanks for the advice.

I've already transfered the recordings to my computer (didn't have an option to do so digitally). They are AIFF files. I've played a little in Peak and Sound Studio but still not sure if I'm doing the optimum.

My main question still is when I pull up the 30-Band equalizer which controls do I move to improve the quality? I wish I could post a picture of the equalizer. I'm not really sure which end to spectrum I should be working in. I've done some stuff by ear but i fear that I might be worsening some areas while improving others.