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Recording Issues - Rumble, and Hiss

Sampling pipe organs and turning them into something you can play in Hauptwerk.
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alex.hendrickson

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Recording Issues - Rumble, and Hiss

PostWed Jun 06, 2007 7:19 pm

Hello all,

I know this must be rather elementary here, but perhaps someone can help.

I've been working for a while now, with a friend a good distance away, on turning his recordings of the Casavant at his church, into something that can first be played in HW1, and then eventually in time, HW2 as well.

In the recordings, we have been getting a good amount of low-pitched rumble, as well as a good amount of constant, unchanging electronic noise, like when you have an old stereo and speakers, and turn the volume knobs up rather high.

The rumble has not been an issue in most pipes thus far, I can remove it (I shouldn't have to), except in the lower pipes where it harms their harmonic build-up and intensities. However, removing the electronic noise has rendered most stops rather dull. My friend remarked that the diapason chorus on the great does not have the "bloom" that it does in the room.

Through listening to comparative recordings he has made of pieces in the church, on his own, and then playing the same things, I note that many of the upper partials are diminished, or at times entirely missing in the "computerized" versions. Thus, I've decided that his sense of the "lack of bloom" is the fact that the stops have lost their upper clarity.

He suggested recording further out in the church to catch more of the developed sound, however I've noted that recording where he did (about 2-6 meters away, depending on how far the pipes are in the chamber) is not close enough for some stops (Erzhaler and such) and that any farther away would clearly not be loud enough.

So I am thinking that he should either re-record where the former recordings were made, or perhaps a bit closer.

Thoughts?

Likewise, I would also like to hear thoughts on eliminating the excess high and low noise, PRE-production, before they are recorded. He mentioned that there are settings on the side of the recorder, recording levels I believe; perhaps a certain setting?

We're using a Edirol R-09 Digital WAV Recorder and a Sound Professionals SP-CMC-8C Premium Cardioid Microphone. We've been recording at 48khz, 24 bit, and then I've been reducing them down to 44.1khz, 16 bit in Sony SoundForge to produce first the HW1 version.

Any help whatsoever will help us to get this finished as soon as possible, and released to the public quickly.

Many thanks,

Alex
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NicholasA

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PostThu Jun 07, 2007 12:00 am

Hi Alex!

Removing the brightness of a pipe is very easy to do without knowing whilst processing pipe samples.

What software are you using to reduce the noise? And what functions are you using to reduce it?

My recommendation to getting good noise reduction levels is to make some recordings of the instrument by playing a few pieces of musical literature. Then make a template for your noise reduction (all of this is discussed in the guide for "Creating Hauptwerk 1 Organs") and exeperiment with the various parameters of the noise reduction, trying to remove the noise from one of your actual recordings of music. When you come across settings that don't affect the quality of the music, they are the settings you should use for your pipe samples. Listen very carefully to quiet parts of the music and parts where the volume jumps rapidly from loud to quiet (and vice-versa), as these are the sections that the noise reduction will affect dramatically.

A loud blower is awful when processing the pipes of lower registers. You may have to experiment by trying to baffle the blower with something like curtains inside the organ. Otherwise you may need to lower the amount of noise reduction for those particular pipes resulting in a less-than-great amount of noise reduction. Equalisation after noise reduction might also work, but I would tend to avoid it.

In regards to your upper clarity dilema, the higher partials of the sound of a pipe are often significantly lower in amplitude than the lower fundamental, if your noise reduction is too harsh, you may lose some of them all-together resulting in a loss of brightness and clarity! It sounds to me like your noise reduction is too agressive.

I'm unfamiliar with your recorder and your microphone, so I can't say if either of them are contributing to the problem. Good equipment will make all post-production much easier by reducing electrical noise levels. There isn't much you can do pre-production to eliminate noise besides baffling the blower (when on a budget anyway). Baffling windows may also help. Make sure all fans and airconditioners are off. I even turn off fluorescent and high-power lighting to reduce electrical noise.

Keep us up to date :-)

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