Need a helping hand to make sure you do it right, first time? Got some good advice to pass on, so no-one makes the same mistakes you did? This is your forum.
Do we know if reaper has a way to automate the lining up of audio tracks?
I spent some time this weekend futzing around with dual mic set up's / placements and i have some ok tones but i have my e906 pretty much right on the grill and the 57 is backed about an inch. naturally there is going to be a slight delay from when the sound hits the capsule. Historically in these situations i just manually find a nice spike as a reference point in the graphical representation of the wave and line it up as best i can. Just wondering if we live in a world yet where the daw can scan / sync that stuff up for us now rather then standing back and eyeballing it.
It is worth noting i am not that lazy i really do not mind doing it the manual way i was just more curious if this is a feature at all. You'd think it might be.
Two things come to mind with this from my own experience....
1) It might never sound good with the two mics being that out of phase. One inch front/back generally isn't enough to make a huge difference in sound, but it's plenty to screw up the phase of the two mics. One foot, sure. One inch, not worth it in my opinion. The difference of sound in one inch might not be enough to even mess with.
2) Unless you plan on keeping both tracks totally equally blended, tiny milliseconds in phase don't matter that much. Usually you're going to have one of the mics do the heavy lifting, and the other will be acting in a lesser supplemental type role. When you drop one of the tracks 4, 5, 6 db under the other one, those tiny little milliseconds of phase end up meaning nothing. So get them as equidistant as possible, or go huge with the difference.
Having said all that, manually looking for peaks to match up is the best way IMO. There are also phase sliding plug-ins that can do the trick. I have one that has a virtual knob that can "spin" and it moves the track left or right. Turn that knob until it sounds clean clear and in phase.
Greg_L wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:18 pm
Two things come to mind with this from my own experience....
1) It might never sound good with the two mics being that out of phase. One inch front/back generally isn't enough to make a huge difference in sound, but it's plenty to screw up the phase of the two mics. One foot, sure. One inch, not worth it in my opinion. The difference of sound in one inch might not be enough to even mess with.
2) Unless you plan on keeping both tracks totally equally blended, tiny milliseconds in phase don't matter that much. Usually you're going to have one of the mics do the heavy lifting, and the other will be acting in a lesser supplemental type role. When you drop one of the tracks 4, 5, 6 db under the other one, those tiny little milliseconds of phase end up meaning nothing. So get them as equidistant as possible, or go huge with the difference.
Having said all that, manually looking for peaks to match up is the best way IMO. There are also phase sliding plug-ins that can do the trick. I have one that has a virtual knob that can "spin" and it moves the track left or right. Turn that knob until it sounds clean clear and in phase.
noted. I don't really mind the manual way and what you say about the miniscule distance makes heaps of sense. maybe i won't try and tighten it right up. Sadly i do have to deal with that trademark orange thickness so any little bit of sparkle and clarity i can salvage is worth chasing i think. I just keep on moving those mic;'s around. Every time i think i have found the sweet spot i'll come back the next day and it sounds like hot garbage all over again. I am pretty sure it is just my mic positions though.
noted. I don't really mind the manual way and what you say about the miniscule distance makes heaps of sense. maybe i won't try and tighten it right up. Sadly i do have to deal with that trademark orange thickness so any little bit of sparkle and clarity i can salvage is worth chasing i think. I just keep on moving those mic;'s around. Every time i think i have found the sweet spot i'll come back the next day and it sounds like hot garbage all over again. I am pretty sure it is just my mic positions though.
One thing that multiple mics does by default, if you set it up right, is cancel out some of the bad stuff - high end fizz. That can leave things sounding super thick and heavy. A single mic will usually yield brighter more aggressive results. Multiple mics will usually be smoother and thicker.
noted. I don't really mind the manual way and what you say about the miniscule distance makes heaps of sense. maybe i won't try and tighten it right up. Sadly i do have to deal with that trademark orange thickness so any little bit of sparkle and clarity i can salvage is worth chasing i think. I just keep on moving those mic;'s around. Every time i think i have found the sweet spot i'll come back the next day and it sounds like hot garbage all over again. I am pretty sure it is just my mic positions though.
One thing that multiple mics does by default, if you set it up right, is cancel out some of the bad stuff - high end fizz. That can leave things sounding super thick and heavy. A single mic will usually yield brighter more aggressive results. Multiple mics will usually be smoother and thicker.
That is exactly what i am noticing. I really really like the effect i am getting a lot. It's really noticeable the difference. It really accentuates that 'ol Orange thickness. I suppose that can even be tamed with a little more mic placement manipulation. But, absolutely, most of the fizzy sizzle i have heard in previous attempts is gone for the most part. It is there when i solo one of the tracks out on it's own, but gone with the blended stuff. This is really cool. But it has really illuminated for me that i need to chase down a bit more sparkle and presence. I really like the sound of things in the room, i just have to capture that better and get to know that e906 a bit better. That mic definitely has it's own clothes it like to wear compared to the 57.
Hopefully have some tones up this week. I am planning a sick day at some point.
I've never lined them up in the DAW - I'll either be using one deliberately a foot or more away, or they're as close as I want them to be to within about an inch or thereabouts. I'll invert the polarity on one or the other to see if I like the combination better, but generally one will be lower in the mix, so its never been that much of an issue for me.
Armistice wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:31 am
I've never lined them up in the DAW - I'll either be using one deliberately a foot or more away, or they're as close as I want them to be to within about an inch or thereabouts. I'll invert the polarity on one or the other to see if I like the combination better, but generally one will be lower in the mix, so its never been that much of an issue for me.
Interesting. I feel like i have been wasting my time all this time haha. I do this for my acoustic tracks too. I wonder if i just leave them from now on what it'll be like. Good to know.
JD01 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 6:34 am
Shan - before you go too crazy - have you tried the phase-flip button in Reaper?
Yea i tried that and it just kind of made it sound really thin and flimsy. Hollow even. I didn't like the results of that. But for tone testing and stuff i sort of left everything up the middle? Would i have heard different results of i aimed them to different spots in the stereo field ? like if i panned one hard right and one hard left? not that i would ever mix the two tracks down that way but i dunno. I may give that go when i get home tonight for shits.
