KVR Audio

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Sat May 02, 2009 2:41 am

A bit of fun with my new toy, so a little different from previous posts.

Getting some PC noise on the mic which I need to fix in the future... used a gate here but despite an age fiddling it ended up a compromise between some noise and damaging the vocal track more

Might go back and re-record it sometime, for now I'm pretty happy with this (sparse) arrangement

tainted

Benedict · Post by **Benedict** » Sun May 03, 2009 1:10 am

Hi Mr t00nz

This is a pretty nice song. Production could use a little tightening but you seem aware of that.

I'd soften the drive on the Piano and the Bass doesn't sound like it is playing with the piece (not sure why)

Nice and well done

suhnton · Post by **suhnton** » Sun May 03, 2009 2:00 am

I like this too.
t00nz, you've got some good songwriting skills. The vocal phrasing is really good, and you've got a good voice. It's good to see you've started using it.
I'll agree with Benedict in that the bass is a little off though and the keyboard would sound cool pulled back a tad drive-wise.

With regard to your pc noise problem, have you tried applying some kind of noise reduction via a wave editor e.g Soundforge? I have a POD which I use as a preamp for recording vocals (crude yeah I know, but it's all I got), and it adds a lot of noise. Once I've done vocals, I open the file in an editor and apply the noise reduction. Works really well.

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Sun May 03, 2009 4:06 pm

Cheers Benedict, Suhnton.. glad you like the song.. I expected the comments on the arrangement, it doesn't really do it justice..

I want to practice singing and mixing the voice a few times to get familiar with the whole idea before concentrating too much on the music.. I think this would be quite nice with something acoustic, or maybe a proper piano arrangment but thats a whole other learning curve for me.

I'd like to try more things first (and I need to get back into practice).. So purposely left this rough around the edges, and good thing is songs lend themselves well to different arrangements and styles so can always come back to anything worthwhile.

Suhnton..not got soundforge, I tried to use a combination of parametric eq and gate - and in the end had some luck with Spectro actually, trouble is it seemed like a fairly broad bandwidth on that noise so by the time it wasn't noticeable I'd also took a lot of presence from the voice.. I have a couple of good options though.. I can bounce a backing track down, then record the vocal on a laptop maybe (hopefully without the fans coming on at all).. or just try to move away more.. (sounds a bit silly but there is even a cupboard next to me, maybe can use that

I've noticed it drops off significantly away from the PC and with the mic pointed away, but recorded the first part before I realised.. and I'm still trying to get the hang of getting mic and voice etc to be more predictable to make comping (yes I've been reading

) easier. I'll get the hang of the basics after I've been at it a couple of months..

thanks again for the feedback!

Benedict · Post by **Benedict** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:10 am

Hi

If this is one of your first recordings then very well done.

It's probably better to put the PC in the cupboard as being locked in a small dark box may affect your performance

Try a 'cleaner' tool like the one in Sound Forge for broadband noise as they are like magic - not as good as a clean take but close.

suhnton · Post by **suhnton** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:21 am

What do you usually use (s/ware wise) to record?
Benedict, I love that song (haven't heard it in a while).

Barnadine · Post by **Barnadine** » Mon May 04, 2009 2:58 am

Great to hear you singing again, t00nz. Agreed on the keyboard being a little overdriven, but I like the general sparseness of the arrangement. Good stuff.

suhnton · Post by **suhnton** » Mon May 04, 2009 5:18 am

BTW, here's a free wave editor with noise redux capabilities. I haven't used it but it looks like it will do the job.

http://www.free-audio-editor.com/

Benedict · Post by **Benedict** » Mon May 04, 2009 8:56 am

suhnton wrote:What do you usually use (s/ware wise) to record?
Benedict, I love that song (haven't heard it in a while).

I don't re4cors real things. Hurts me too much. I do have a Waveosaur and that is fine for now.

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:00 am

Benedict wrote:Hi

If this is one of your first recordings then very well done.

It's probably better to put the PC in the cupboard as being locked in a small dark box may affect your performance

Try a 'cleaner' tool like the one in Sound Forge for broadband noise as they are like magic - not as good as a clean take but close.

Thanks.. Yes, it's only my second in fact, so pretty early days.. I've been concentrating on instrumental electronic stuff, with an occasional few words recorded via a pair of headphones plugged into the mic socket

Actually singing is something I only considered recently, but it does open a lot of doors musically (songwriting is interesting in its own right and the results are more accessible to others). Also, I think I tend to think more in melodies than bleeps and sweeps.

That vid appears to be blocked over here...but ok ok, I'll stay out of the cupboard.. didn't really want to run that one by 'her indoors' in any case

I'm quite surprised that a noise removal tool might be an answer.. I just assumed that would be just a notch filter and didn't expect much from it beyond eq tweaking.. I'll go check them out properly..

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:01 am

suhnton wrote:What do you usually use (s/ware wise) to record?
Benedict, I love that song (haven't heard it in a while).

I'm recording direct into Reaper (via emu 0202).

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:06 am

Barnadine wrote:Great to hear you singing again, t00nz. Agreed on the keyboard being a little overdriven, but I like the general sparseness of the arrangement. Good stuff.

thanks Barnadine... Was trying for something a bit electric guitarish on the keyboard... juding from the comments I think I overdid it

t00nz · Post by **t00nz** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:10 am

suhnton wrote:BTW, here's a free wave editor with noise redux capabilities. I haven't used it but it looks like it will do the job.

http://www.free-audio-editor.com/

thanks suhnton .. will check that out... and try the soundforge demo's too... (fingers crossed I can get away with the cheap one

core · Post by **core** » Thu May 07, 2009 11:14 am

Cool vocals t00nz. Looking forward to hearing more!

TNZ - Tainted [song]