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The Cutting Room -Editing Audio Tracks [Recording Vocals Pt 5]

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So far, you have an excellent vocal track; strong, present, and free of

sonic interference. But, are you wondering why it sounds a little junky?

That is because the human voice produces more noises than the

pleasant tones you are looking for. In editing, you cut away the excess

to get to the most essential parts, before refining even further.

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Make Room for the Crowd

Recording is often about taking things away to

make more room.

It’s important to hone that ability to trim away

the fat. When you have only a few tracks,

the imperfections and excess are plainly

visible. As you add tracks, noise really adds

up and clouds your tracks. Image © bass_nroll via Compfight

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Comping

The first step is compiling a complete, continuous track, a process

known as comping. Even your efforts to get the best take of a vocalist

can be stymied by some minor mistakes.

Make sure that you get familiar with crossfades. Sometimes, you cut

very close to words, perhaps even mid-word. Without crossfading,

you’ll create a choppy and uneven take.

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Taking Out the Trash

It’s time to unearth the perfect track that’s hiding inside it. It can be a

really good way of focusing your cleanup duties by showing what

needs work and what doesn’t.

This saves some time, but it can also

take away crucial elements of the track

without your noticing it.Image © bass_nroll via Compfight

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At the Gates….

Noise gates are also fine choices for reducing junky vocal sounds.

Once you set the threshold, attack, and release parameters, you

should have a squeaky clean vocal track. Just take some time to solo

the vocals and make sure that you examine the track for integrity.

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Hand Jive

Removing all extraneous vocal noises eliminates some of the

humanity of a track, so I like to leave a few in. It sounds like torture, but

I can usually get through a track pretty fast this way with some piece of

mind that the entire track is up to my standards.

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What Was Lost

After editing, take some time to listen to the vocals in context. You’ll

notice a bit more clarity that is difficult to identify.

This is the last step of the production phase. Now, you’re ready to get

started on post-production.

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The Cutting Room -Editing Audio Tracks [Recording Vocals Pt 5]

http://homerecordinghome.com/the-cutting-room-editing-audio-tracks/