Some of our favourite albums are live recordings - and some of the most challenging and interesting mastering projects are also recorded live. In this episode we discuss:
- The most common problems with live sound, and
- The mastering rules you’re allowed to break to solve them
- What is the “ideal” live recording ?
- How restoration tools can be useful for mastering live sound
- Techniques for mastering live classical music
- How to preserve the most important aspect of any live recording in mastering
Links
TMS #25 – Stereo: width, depth and image – how to measure, monitor and master them
TMS #5 – Mastering EQ is about balance, not matching
TMS #28 – Remastering & Restoration
Thanks guys, another great podcast.
Reminds me of the time we made a band DVD mostly from two video cameras sporting Rode stereo mics. Later I used two spaced pair mics with an X/Y configuration in-between them and recorded directly into a Boss 1600CD recorder.
On one band video I cut and pasted various clips together and synched them to Eric Idle's song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", lol awesome fun. There was no infringement of copyright since the DVD was not for sale. If it had been then naturally we would have contacted the appropriate people for permission, but if he could not be contacted then we would have . . . and now for something completely different . . . I take it this week's maxim is "How to polish a t**d" judging by Ian's last words . . . Right that's it! Enough of this silly nonsense! What's for dinner? Not spam again!
I once recorded an orchestra live performance where the 'harpsichord' player forgot to switch to harpsichord at the start of a Bach concerto so it came out as a piano sound for a few seconds. Luckily I had recorded the rehearsal so I took a rehearsal DI take from the keyboard, and stretched it a bit to match the tempo of the live performance 🙂