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10-04-2011, 01:57 PM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 524
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How the h*ll am I supposed to "Master" this?
I do a bit of mixing and making things sound better afterwards, not mastering, but someone sent me an mp3 file of something he wanted me to "MASTER".
This person said the artist recorded the song in adobe audition, with a usb mic, and no longer has the project. I suggested the person send me EVERYTHING TRACKED OUT, DRY but this persons artist no longer has the session file.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/zjezcs
How would you REAPERS approach this? is it even worth approaching?
SPOILER: IT SOUNDS REALLY BAD
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10-04-2011, 01:59 PM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 3,221
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send it back to him 1 db louder and tell him to compare it to the original.
he will prefer your version and pay you one million dollars
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10-04-2011, 02:00 PM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 524
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I guess it isn't worth approaching, is it? Are there any restoration tools in reaper that can suppress/ minimize the apparent distortion in the vocals?
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10-04-2011, 02:03 PM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 1,272
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Sounds like a hopeless case to me. I'd just explain to him everything he did wrong and say better luck next time.
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10-04-2011, 02:04 PM
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#5
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 123
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Wow that is pretty bad. It's not even close to ready for mastering
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10-04-2011, 02:31 PM
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#6
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 2,173
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I agree with Argle, tho you COULD waste a lot of time on it, the vocals will still sound like......that.....
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10-04-2011, 08:00 PM
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#7
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Here
Posts: 3,000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunaj
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I tried to download this a few times, but I feel like I'm playing Download Roulette: Every link I click wants me to download an exe file of some sort... setup, etc... rather than an actual audio file, or even a zipped file.
Am I just being paranoid? Dense? Both? What am I missing?
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10-04-2011, 08:12 PM
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#8
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Saskatoon, Canada
Posts: 2,110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marah Mag
I tried to download this a few times, but I feel like I'm playing Download Roulette: Every link I click wants me to download an exe file of some sort... setup, etc... rather than an actual audio file, or even a zipped file.
Am I just being paranoid? Dense? Both? What am I missing?
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I managed to get the file but I'm starting to hate these download sites for just this reason. Every button is big and green with all caps DOWNLOAD written on them except for the link that actually downloads the file you want. That one is hidden away with some cryptic link text.
Truly no offence intended to Sunaj...we all need these sites on occasion. I just wanted sympathize with Marah Mag.
Now, on topic. Sometimes a de-clipper (I use the one in Audition..a bit ironic) set to just the right detection can grab that kind of hinky and clean it up. Another option is to go in with a high resolution spectral editor. You should see a single vertical spike for each clipped audio cycle which can be selected and removed with a click tool. At this point the question of how much they are willing to pay you is a good one to raise.
Here's a few free options. Try out ReLife from Terry West ( http://www.terrywest.nl/utils.html) and maybe pulling the highs in the side channel way down (you could use the new BaxterEQ from variety of sound for this). As with anything like this YMMV.
Last edited by plush2; 10-04-2011 at 08:34 PM.
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10-05-2011, 02:28 AM
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#9
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 524
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Hey, it's all good. Sendspace was the first site that came to mind. Thanks for the tip
Here's a stream. I mean, I tried, I think without the distortion this one is a bit more listenable if y'all disregard the overall degradation of the audio. Honestly neither one of them are listenable to my ears. Listen if you got time to waste and compare to the original.
Original: Groovy Baby - Make It Clap (Lyrics).mp3 - 5.8 Mb
REDID : REDID-Groovy Baby - Make It Clap (Lyrics).mp3 - 4.2 Mb
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10-05-2011, 02:59 AM
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#10
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 40
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Can you post a direct download? I will look at it. What's up Sunaj!
Edit: This is freakin' funny!
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10-05-2011, 06:34 PM
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#11
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Montreal, QC
Posts: 797
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marah Mag
I tried to download this a few times, but I feel like I'm playing Download Roulette: Every link I click wants me to download an exe file of some sort... setup, etc... rather than an actual audio file, or even a zipped file.
Am I just being paranoid? Dense? Both? What am I missing?
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It took me about five minutes to get the original MP3 file and I'm not sure how I did it. I did win a free iPad and get to guess which direction the ballerina is spinning, though.
I agree with the others, this is hopeless. The voice is clipping constantly yet it sounds distant and half as loud as the music. I wonder how much the "Producer" got paid for recording this?
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10-05-2011, 07:18 PM
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#12
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: All Hallows End
Posts: 2,132
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Sadly, I'm agreeing with the phrase 'this is hopeless'.
Unless of course you just go whole hog time stretch and make it sound like its coming out of a drunk telephone. In other words, making it worse would make it sound better to my ears
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10-05-2011, 07:34 PM
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#13
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 524
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pattste
It took me about five minutes to get the original MP3 file and I'm not sure how I did it. I did win a free iPad and get to guess which direction the ballerina is spinning, though.
I agree with the others, this is hopeless. The voice is clipping constantly yet it sounds distant and half as loud as the music. I wonder how much the "Producer" got paid for recording this?
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the guy said he recorded with a usb mic.
how do you get such a bad sound with something like that? Must have been on something recording that
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10-05-2011, 08:00 PM
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#14
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,436
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I played a bit trying to remove clipping...
http://min.us/mGOZjWDoH
btw, sunaj, register on minus.com, it`s free and you get 10 gb...no waiting time, integrated viewer for pdf, mp3, etc...
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10-05-2011, 08:00 PM
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#15
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: A-town, Australia
Posts: 633
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Wow. That's awful. It definitely takes a special person that knows enough to put together a backing track like that but have no idea about recording vocals. I wouldn't attempt anything with it. Even if you improved it a bit, I wouldn't risk having my name attached to anything like that.
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10-05-2011, 10:55 PM
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#16
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 1,265
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People lets just for one moment consider that the scooped highpassed telephone super stereo vocals is the way the person wanted the vocals to sound. Lets just assume he wasn't aiming for that up front brittle contred in your face hip hop rap vocal sound.
With that assumption this isn't that bad. The distortion still makes it DOA but fixing stuff is what mastering is all about. It's /not/ about making everything sound like every commercial production ever, so if the vocals are recorded through a telephone its none of the mes business to change it. Unless he got asked to do a remix.
Anyway REAPER doesn't feature the needed tools to fix the distortion thus progressing with any enhancements would be useless. You need audio cleaning software to remove the distortions first.
Edit: The fact that it is only present in MP3 format makes matters even worse, since it changes the audio qualities quite a bit making it extrahard for the cleaning algorithm to pick and fix the distortion.
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10-05-2011, 11:07 PM
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#17
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,203
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nym
send it back to him 1 db louder and tell him to compare it to the original.
he will prefer your version and pay you one million dollars
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Good one!
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10-05-2011, 11:15 PM
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#18
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,203
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mich
People lets just for one moment consider that the scooped highpassed telephone super stereo vocals is the way the person wanted the vocals to sound. Lets just assume he wasn't aiming for that up front brittle contred in your face hip hop rap vocal sound.
With that assumption this isn't that bad. The distortion still makes it DOA but fixing stuff is what mastering is all about. It's /not/ about making everything sound like every commercial production ever, so if the vocals are recorded through a telephone its none of the mes business to change it. Unless he got asked to do a remix.
Anyway REAPER doesn't feature the needed tools to fix the distortion thus progressing with any enhancements would be useless. You need audio cleaning software to remove the distortions first.
Edit: The fact that it is only present in MP3 format makes matters even worse, since it changes the audio qualities quite a bit making it extrahard for the cleaning algorithm to pick and fix the distortion.
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This makes sense!I have experienced good results by rendering an upsampled file to 24bits with -3dB lowered volume. That action alone apparently can repair a lot of distortion. Next to that Izotope RX is okay but requires a lot of study.
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10-06-2011, 12:36 AM
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#19
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Civitavecchia (Italy)
Posts: 574
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be careful mate, you gonna spoil your master' worlwide reputation and give you a bad name in the business... you better give up, imo, telling the guy you're not used to this kind of no-pro things (and dont forget to make some compliment for the tune, of course)
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10-06-2011, 01:53 AM
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#20
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 524
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I'm done. What i posted was the extent to which I was willing to work on it.
The guy said his artist is remaking the beat and he's going to come to my pad to re-record it.
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10-06-2011, 02:25 AM
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#21
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 1,265
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunaj
The guy said his artist is remaking the beat and he's going to come to my pad to re-record it.
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Good choice.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by vBulletin Message
Sorry pipelineaudio is a moderator/admin and you are not allowed to ignore him or her.
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10-06-2011, 12:54 PM
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#22
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,027
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Quote:
Originally Posted by earlabs
This makes sense!I have experienced good results by rendering an upsampled file to 24bits with -3dB lowered volume. That action alone apparently can repair a lot of distortion. Next to that Izotope RX is okay but requires a lot of study.
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FWIW, Changing the gain will not remove/repair digital clipping.
You're literally just turning the audio (including distortion) down.
Once the damage is done, you can try de-clipping algorithms.
If the clipping is short, it'll likely sound OK. If the clipping is longer/extended, you won't be able to fix/repair it.
The best course of action is to retrack this tune... as the OP intends.
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10-08-2011, 05:03 PM
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#23
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: A-town, Australia
Posts: 633
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunaj
I'm done. What i posted was the extent to which I was willing to work on it.
The guy said his artist is remaking the beat and he's going to come to my pad to re-record it.
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Best outcome. Be sure to post back when you're done.
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