The RPM challenge means I’m learning a bit more about my audio software (Ableton and Logic as my main DAWs and Audacity as a handy utility tool) but, with a recent spate of rehearsals and gigs meaning I need to take audio notes to help my learning (mentioned on Monday), I’ve also taken some steps forward in finding a process to do that effectively. If you aren’t careful, chopping up a live recording into usable chunks can take longer than the event itself and you end up never having time to actually listen closely to the results!
Mainly for my own benefit, here is my current pipeline:
- Gig or rehearsal captured in a large WAV file using Zoom H1 recorder
- Chatter and other space trimmed from the start and end (and possibly some blank areas gouged out within the recording) using Audacity. File saved as MP3 (much smaller; for this purpose, loss of audio quality doesn’t make a perceptible difference)
- MP3 imported into Logic project. Some FX applied to enhance sound (eg. EQ, compressor / limiter, possibly reverb). Track split into named regions for each song with short fades at start and end. Regions exported to a series of WAV files.
- WAV files uploaded to Soundcloud (probably to a private playlist) to share with the rest of the group involved
- Chain feature in Audacity used to batch convert to MP3 files for local storage
- Tidy up extraneous files; I only need the MP3 ones locally (less than 100MB in most cases rather than well over 1GB)
It still takes a bit of time but, now I have a plan, at least it is getting done.