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Foog
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Joined: 27 Oct 2013
Posts: 608
Location: Upper Canuckistan
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 Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:23 am Post subject: free frequency analyst |
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I hope I have the right sub forum for this. Software is "gear" too, right?
I've been driving myself crazy trying to find a way of doing some frequency analysis or even getting a good VU meter plugin for my version of Pro Tools (LE 7) with no real success (I suppose it doesn't help that my ancient MacBook Pro is running OS 10.4.11). I was, of course, hoping to find something at a price not entirely unadjacent to zero dollars.
Today I hit on a free solution that I think does the trick, even if it is convoluted. I fired up my Windows laptop, downloaded the kinda-VST-compatible freeware audio audacity, and then downloaded bluecat audio's sweet looking frequency analyst (also free! http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_FreqAnalyst/). Then I just transferred the WAV files from one machine to the other and voila... it looks like it works! My quick initial test shows what others have already pointed out - my noise floor has a helluva spike in the low end. And I also was pleased to discover that some judicious low-end EQing (as suggested by Clutter Ash and others. Thanks guys!!) along with some downward expansion helped massively. But yeah, bass traps are rising to the top of my "must have" list!
At any rate, before I get too excited by my new analyser toy, I wanted to ask whether it was at all accurate to run something like this through audio audacity. Any reason why it shouldn't work as well on this platform, or am I good to go as long as I am using the nice shiny WAVs that were originally recorded in Pro Tools?
cheers,
Andrew Fogarasi |
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vkuehn
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Joined: 24 Apr 2013
Posts: 688
Location: Vernon now calls Wisconsin home
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 5:56 am Post subject: |
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There appears to be a version of Audacity for the MAC. Did you download it and try it?
Oooops! It's the add-on that does the frequency analysis. No add-on in a MAC version?
I like the Frequency Analysis in Adobe Audition and the newer versions seem to have improved the feature. But I always wonder just how trustworthy the info is.
If you make two different recordings with different mics or different distance or other changes, I assume the comparative into is trustworthy, but to try and match up "peaks in a sweet range" to what someone else describes in writing may lack accuracy....... or not? |
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Ed Fisher
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Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:10 am Post subject: |
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Bass Traps to deal with a low end spike in your room noise?
I'm not sure those will help.
Well...maybe they will help some.
But, bass traps are meant to absorb base that is generated by the sound you create (voice or monitors) in your recording area. Standing waves and that sort of thing.
The bass spike you are referring to seems to be coming in from the outside. Although, the argument could be made that sound in your space..."is sound in your space" regardless of where it comes from...right?
I guess the point is...I think what you need is a way to prevent that sound from entering your space in the first place and then you are talking the difference between "sound absorbing" and "sound proofing."
It sounds as if you think that using a HPF is a bad thing, when, in fact, it's used by many on almost everything. Here's a post by a guy who mixes audio for TV and you can see that the first thing he does is roll off starting at 100hz or even 150hz...
And this is the human voice your are talking about EQing. So...all that low end mud isn't particularly useful anyway. IMHO.
"I then start EQ on the VO to make it stand out a little better(highpass@around 100, cut a little in the 350-400, and maybe a bump a bit in the 4k)I scoop out a bit in the 1-4k on the music, SFX I screw around with a highpass on low end stuff(around 100 to 150). I then go back to the "TV" speakers and do a final mix on those. I will use a C4 in the master section using the multi band compression like a final EQ.
When I hear my stuff on air it seems to translate well. Some producers don't trust me, and make me mix on the "expensive" speakers, when I do get a good mix(to there ears) on the Genelecs, SFX and Music seem to get lost on broadcast." - Lank
"Now those Eq's are just starting points, all narrators are a little different. I do feel most can use some cuts in the low mids and a boost in the 4k range. With a parametric I usually do the boost with a fine Q and sweep around to find the right freq. to cut in the low mids. Let me know how these work for you! " - Lank
Quoted from:
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=94046
Others here are more qualified than I to comment on this. But, although I think Bass traps are a good thing in general, I"m not sure that low end noise (wherever it's coming from - could be traffic outside - your refrigerator motor in the other room - air conditioning in your building - who knows?) is going to be attenuated as much as you might hope by the addition of bass traps.
YMMV.
But then...I could be completely wrong.
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"I reserve the right to be completely wrong." |
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Ed Fisher
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Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:00 am Post subject: |
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As an afterthought...
How do you have your microphone mounted?
Are you using a good shock mount?
If the mic is not properly isolated from the desk/wall/floor where it is mounted it will pick up the low frequencies that you are attempted to attenuate.
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Foog
DC
Joined: 27 Oct 2013
Posts: 608
Location: Upper Canuckistan
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Clutter Ash wrote: | The bass spike you are referring to seems to be coming in from the outside. Although, the argument could be made that sound in your space..."is sound in your space" regardless of where it comes from...right?
I guess the point is...I think what you need is a way to prevent that sound from entering your space in the first place and then you are talking the difference between "sound absorbing" and "sound proofing." |
What I am not entirely clear on is how much the "sound absorption" end of things helps mitigate some of the sound that manages to sneak in past the "sound proofing" end. I come from a place of massive (if no longer blissful) ignorance about these things. Someone (I think it was George Whittam) mentioned in another thread that bass traps are critical in a small room. Perhaps even though the noise is coming from the outside, the corners are exacerbating the problem and that is why traps would help?
| Clutter Ash wrote: | | It sounds as if you think that using a HPF is a bad thing, when, in fact, it's used by many on almost everything. |
It's not that I think it is a bad thing. It's just that I'm a nervous nellie who is reluctant to try anything new that might mess things up. But recently the "judicious EQing" I've taken to doing is actually a full HPF roll off around 40Hz. Baby steps  I guess that growing a spine in my case doesn't only refer to refusing lowball gigs, but also to rolling my sleeves up and processing that signal a bit. Starting today, I'll bump my HPF present to 50Hz... maybe even 60hz, the devil with the (completely nonexistent) consequences!
| Clutter Ash wrote: | | Others here are more qualified than I to comment on this. But, although I think Bass traps are a good thing in general, I"m not sure that low end noise (wherever it's coming from - could be traffic outside - your refrigerator motor in the other room - air conditioning in your building - who knows?) is going to be attenuated as much as you might hope by the addition of bass traps. |
Another thing that has been keeping me awake lately is trying to figure out where, exactly, the noise is coming from. I live in a small town and do most of my recording at night. So there is no traffic. I am in the basement far from the kitchen, but even so I have recorded with every appliance quiet with little-to-no change in the noise floor. There is a PC on the carpeted floor overhead about 8 feet or so from where I record. When I walk around the basement in the dead of night trying to hunt down noise sources, I can hear an increase in the background hum/rumble whenever I walk underneath it. I'm not sure whether it is the PC or the uninsulated window in that part of the basement that makes the ambient sound louder there. At any rate, I probably should put that computer on a table and/or on rubber feet just to see if it helps.
Fortunately for me, winter is coming (I feel like Ned Stark!). That blanket of several feet of snow that will have me cursing as I shovel the driveway in a couple of months will also help greatly (if temporarily) on the "keep sound out" end of things.
Meanwhile, I have been researching a bit about bass traps. My budget is nonexistent, so that is all I can really do at the moment - research. Not only have I learned that there are purists who would get angry with me for calling ambient noise in a room the "noise floor", (apparently the strict definition of "noise floor" is any signal coming from your system AFTER the mic. Cables and gear adding noise kinda thing), I have also discovered lots of heated debate about how much clearance between the wall and traps there should be. (with some folks insisting that a reduced space is too small to allow for an effective placement.) Arguments on the internet... Whoever heard of such a thing!
| Clutter Ash wrote: | As an afterthought...
How do you have your microphone mounted?
Are you using a good shock mount? |
It's on good shock mount, on a floor stand, coming up through a hole I drilled in the table. However, the stand is on legs instead of a heavy base, so I probably need to change that up. In the absence of a good heavy base, perhaps I should snag a bag of flour from the kitchen when my wife isn't looking and lay it across the legs.
cheers,
Andrew Fogarasi
P.S. I can't stress enough how much I appreciate the help and input Clutter Ash, George Whittam, and everyone else here have provided. Knowledge is power. (and power corrupts. hmmmm... maybe I should stay stupid!) |
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Ed Fisher
DC
Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.
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| Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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Me things thou dost worry too much....
As far as HPF and "roll off"or being afraid to "mess" with things...to quote George... (if memory serves)
"If it sounds good...it is good."
I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The best test you can do is to produce a recording, then wait until the next day and listen to it fresh. If it sounds good....well....you know.
_________________
"I reserve the right to be completely wrong." |
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