quote:

Originally posted by djdk I usually normalise then run the recording through the waves L2 loudness maximizer withouth putting too much compression on things (ie find the loudest stretch, not a peak, of the mix and set the threshold so the compressors just kicking in). This means I can record at a much lower volume and have no worries about clipping. As for editing mixes, I remember a discussion about this on another forum a while back. My opinion of it is that its perfectly acceptable to do it. People say, "oh but its a demo, showing your skills, you wouldnt be able to edit the mix in a club, so why do it on a demo" but Ive never got this argument. If you fuck up in a club, be it beatmatching error, missing a cuepoint whatever, so what, shit happens, you build a bridge and get over it. If its not a major fuckup most people wont notice, and if they do, you hold up your hands say sorry and get on with things. The moments passed and people will forget. On a demo however people will be able to go back and listen again and again. So, if I fuckup Ill make sure I go back and redo that mix to make sure its perfect. I dont personally see the point in redoing a whole mix just cos I accendently screwed up the last mix, like I said, shit does happen. What you have to be wary of is that the more times you do a mix, youre going to get progressively more bored with what youre doing, which means youre more likely to fuck it up plus that boredom will probably come across in your mixing, it will sound a bit flat and lacking the flair and energy the first recording had. Just my 2p on the whole subject anyway

well put

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Are you saying that if you fuck up just once on a recorded demo you can somehow go back and redo that one mix? not much of a demonstration in my opinion.

Thats exactly what Im saying, if I screw up a mix while Im recording Ill put the needle back on the record im mixing out of and do it again and edit the wav in post processing.

I really dont see a problem with this because I know i can mix for hours on end without really fucking up. I dont see the editing as enhancing my abilities in anyway shape or form.

TBF tho, Ive only done it a few times and at least one of those has been because FS went spacko and I missed a cue point. If you have to do it more than about twice per set perhaps you should be thinking about practicing more.

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quote:

Originally posted by alefort You do realize you can export straight to mp3 from Audacity...right?

Heh, yes, I do. I just prefer to have a .wav for my cd-burning purposes. I like being able to hand out a high-quality CD to promoters. In addition, my copy of Audacity likes to be a little **** and not work properly with LAME.

Edit: What the fuck, you can't say c.u.n.t.?

I just remove silence before and after, and maybe trim a bit off the end with a fade out (less than 0.5 seconds), kind of like how Ableton fades the beginning of tracks so it's not instantaneously loud. Urm, yeah.

On mixes intended for CDs for friends, I'll edit the final version and redo transitions if things aren't matched properly, missed cue, EQ completely terrible, etc. Generally, though, mixes recorded while just messing around or practicing just have silence removed and the fadeout, possibly normalized if necessary (trying to get better with this).

Of course, Ableton's drawing envelopes and render to disk is kind of like Pro Tools, but I'm still trying to figure out how to set things up so I can mix realtime, eg. using Ableton as decks (CDJs at home =(.

quote:

Originally posted by djdk I usually normalise then run the recording through the waves L2 loudness maximizer withouth putting too much compression on things (ie find the loudest stretch, not a peak, of the mix and set the threshold so the compressors just kicking in). This means I can record at a much lower volume and have no worries about clipping. As for editing mixes, I remember a discussion about this on another forum a while back. My opinion of it is that its perfectly acceptable to do it. People say, "oh but its a demo, showing your skills, you wouldnt be able to edit the mix in a club, so why do it on a demo" but Ive never got this argument. If you fuck up in a club, be it beatmatching error, missing a cuepoint whatever, so what, shit happens, you build a bridge and get over it. If its not a major fuckup most people wont notice, and if they do, you hold up your hands say sorry and get on with things. The moments passed and people will forget. On a demo however people will be able to go back and listen again and again. So, if I fuckup Ill make sure I go back and redo that mix to make sure its perfect. I dont personally see the point in redoing a whole mix just cos I accendently screwed up the last mix, like I said, shit does happen. What you have to be wary of is that the more times you do a mix, youre going to get progressively more bored with what youre doing, which means youre more likely to fuck it up plus that boredom will probably come across in your mixing, it will sound a bit flat and lacking the flair and energy the first recording had. Just my 2p on the whole subject anyway

I'm glad I asked on this topic...see I completely agree with you here...I konw I can mix the set, and I love the tracklisting I chose, however, if I redo the set for a second time just cause of a stupid fuck up at the the second last track, I'm not going to be as into it once restarting from scratch again.

So my question now is....since I haven't got into producing too much is it out of the question to ask what I could use (software) to edit a mix, fix a transition? I currently record using Total recorder in .mp3 format using a LAME encoder. This software doesn't allow you to pause recording and rewind, or start recording somewhere in the file.

Thanks again to all of you for your input!!

I use Sony Sound Forge to record and edit stuff. Im sure there are free alternatives though (I wouldnt like to recommend one as I havent used any)

The best way to fix fucked mixes is to put the needle back on the record you mixed out of (probably to the breakdown or something) but keep the recording going, dont stop it. Once you've finished your mix, save the wav (in case you bollocks things up ) and then edit the file so that the "first take" and "second take" line up seemlessly

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quote:

Originally posted by djdk I use Sony Sound Forge to record and edit stuff. Im sure there are free alternatives though (I wouldnt like to recommend one as I havent used any) The best way to fix fucked mixes is to put the needle back on the record you mixed out of (probably to the breakdown or something) but keep the recording going, dont stop it. Once you've finished your mix, save the wav (in case you bollocks things up ) and then edit the file so that the "first take" and "second take" line up seemlessly

audacity is a great free alternative. i can definitely recommend it, it works really well.

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I usually just record live, amplify a bit, trim silence, save and upload.

I think if you need to heavily edit a set (that you are giving to friends, etc.), then just Ableton the whole thing. This is how commercially produced mixsets are done. It will certainly give the listener at least the idea of what kind of music you play.

However... If you can't mix properly, and get booked based on some perfect mix you post-edited heavily, then you could be in for a very painful lesson, and will only hurt yourself in the end. If you get up in the booth and start trainwrecking, you'll only hurt your reputation.

I edited a recent set I did, only because while the last tune was playing (I was done mixing, cleaning up), I turned off the channel fader while I was resetting the other mixer controls to 0. I just looked at the mixer and said "Why the F did I just do that?". So I Abletoned the last track back in after the mix point. The rest of the mix was basically perfect.

Oh well =

quote:

Originally posted by skip audacity is a great free alternative. i can definitely recommend it, it works really well.

This is a good alternative for editing if I want to redo a transition? I guess I'm SOL until I re record the set then right, in which case I will rewind and drop the needle again, and then cut out the part that I don't want? Sounds good!

quote:

Originally posted by OTtrancer This is a good alternative for editing if I want to redo a transition? I guess I'm SOL until I re record the set then right, in which case I will rewind and drop the needle again, and then cut out the part that I don't want? Sounds good!

well i've never done that with it, but it could be done quite easily. i've re-edited some tunes with it. it's just a basic waveform editor/recorder. nothing fancy, but little editing like that can be done with it in no time and it's really quite simple too. when i wanted to edit my tunes with it i just went and edited them even though i hadn't done it before, that's how easy it was.

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