Shock! Horror!
Tick tock, it’s the end of semester and the beginning of winter. Too cold to be sitting exams I say. Maybe I’ll speak to the Dean about postponing assessment for another 6 months. I feel like that’s how long it’s going go take me to finish all this work I have. Unfortunately I only have about 3 weeks…now where did I put that time dilation device? To make matters more complicated I recently discovered I have made a grievous error of judgment (shock, horror!). But that’s impossible I hear you say. Well believe it kids, the rumors are true. This blunder on my part was recording a song a few BPM short of a six pack. In English I have recorded it too slow. Record it again? No chance. So far bass and guitars have been completed on this particular project. The drums are sequenced in Steinberg’s Nuendo using the sound bank Drumkit From Hell.It is easy enough to change the tempo of the drums; merely the click of the mouse and I can have blast beats faster that Beethoven’s fastest chops. Seeing as vocals have yet to make their debut on the recording, it all boils down to the guitars and bass. First thing’s first, hit the Time compression/Expansion plug-in in the protocols arsenal. Second thing, run into more complications. Ok let me explain; I have 2 guitar tracks panned left and right respectively, with bass in the centre. Each instrument has been recorded from 3 sources, i.e. each guitar take pulls audio from three mics placed in front of a single cab, and the bass with 2 mics and a DI. This leaves me with nine simultaneous tracks for three layers of audio. Still with me? Ok, select all nine tracks, process the audio. Now this is where things go awry. It seems the effect will work for an individual track, however when it processes more than one track i.e. the 3 guitar tracks from the one take, the end result is pure degeneration of you work. It sounds like the mics have become completely out of phase with wave cancellation running rife through the project.
Now what? After consulting with my lecturers and colleagues in the industry I have received mixed responses from everyone, without any definite course of action to take. I know that I can bounce the project in its entirety down to a single stereo track and then run the plug-in with total success, however this requires me to do a full mix down prior to time compression. That wouldn’t be so bad except I’m am quite concerned that if I record the vocals at the slower speed, I could be in for a “chip monk” effect after acceleration. The best case scenario would be to find an algorithm that is not going to damage my guitar and bass tracks, speed up the drums in Nuendo, and then record the vocals at the new speed.
Don’t flip out people, I will restore order and right this terrible wrong!
posted by Daniel Murtagh @ 22:15
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