HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
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nestle
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HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by nestle » Sat Nov 27, 2004 8:48 pm

Fellow tape oper's i'm in a pickle, I need help fast-
I tracked a VO last week and now I realize there is distortion on the track. I used a UA 6176 which was my mistake. The mic was a TLM103. Normally a great mic but the output was hot for the pre-amp and there was a noticeable clipping sound on certain vowels. I've heard this problem before on certain female voices and Neumann's, they just don't get along. When they are mid-rangey type voices they sound clipped. I knew it at the time but for continuity reasons I plowed ahead, big mistake, I realize that now. Now I've got a fussy editor telling my client "I hear something odd?? check the back up". The client actually doesn't hear it, but I know it's there, worse than that my boss knows it now too ("just fix it").
the producer is coming by to pick up a DAT safety on monday, soooooo....
I know there isn't much that can be done but pray but does ANYBODY have any ideas how to de emphisize distortion of this type? An example would be she says "August" and the the "A" clips out around the 1k area.
I have Protools with just about every plug at my disposal, I've tried EQ and compression mostly but will try anything anybody can suggest-


Jeeez, I'm just mortified and I think the issue is going to get worse as the client realizes the extent of the problem next week-
Moral of the story, you hear something weird just stop and fix it, it's your job (at least for now shit lol) :roll:
Last edited by nestle on Sat Nov 27, 2004 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jajjguy
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by jajjguy » Sat Nov 27, 2004 8:56 pm

If it's a case of a single clipped waveform, you can zoom way in and find the waveform that's squared off at the top instead of rounded and redraw it as round with the pencil tool. This won't work if it's more than a single clip at a time. But if it's a vocal pop or spit crackle or somthing like that, then maybe.

nestle
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by nestle » Sat Nov 27, 2004 9:02 pm

thanks but no, it's an insidieous clipping that happens across the whole friggin' punctuation of the word, not like a pop or a crackle. I know my options are slim to none but thought someone might give me some miracle idea to try before I face the music on Monday-

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joelpatterson
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by joelpatterson » Sun Nov 28, 2004 6:58 am

Bring the talent back to re-do the session? I suppose you've already thought of that.
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midiot
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by midiot » Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:05 am

joelpatterson wrote:Bring the talent back to re-do the session? I suppose you've already thought of that.
Right, admit you f'd up and offer to re-dp the session for free, if possible.
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by vvv » Sun Nov 28, 2004 11:59 am

PITA but try to cut and paste the syllable from another word?
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Slider
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by Slider » Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:33 pm

Try the Waves restoration plugins if you have them.
I've repaired crackly clipping stuff with the decrackler and declicker.
Just repair the parts that are clipped don't process the whole file.
If this doesn't work just admit it happened and try to find a resolution.
If it's distorted a bit on loud sections that's cool, but if it's a nasty clip that's not so cool.
That Alanis track has tube mic pre distortion all over it, and so does Elvis Costello's king of America record.
As well as just about every motown, chess, and stax vocal ever recorded.
I know this doesn't apply to your situation, but sometimes front end distortion is really cool.
Good Luck.
This stuff happens in an engineers career.
If you're cool and forthcoming about it people will understand.
When I was starting out I gave tracks to a mixer, to have the guy say right in front of me, "Who's the moron who recorded this mess" lol

brian beattie
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Re: HELP! , I screwed up and need adivice/distorted track

Post by brian beattie » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:51 pm

I had a similar problem recently. I was cutting a tune with the intention of using the live vocals, and the first take turned out to be "the one". It just happened to have absolutely blown out the preamp at 4 or 5 crucial moments in the song. Otherwise, the vocal sound was "pushed", but not slammed. Luckily, I had 5 or 6 additional takes to steal particular words or syllables from in order to fix those blown out moments. The whole vocal isn't ruined, just a few moments, right? Do you have extra takes? If you have anything you could carefully cut and paste, I'd do that, plus I'd do it as little as possible, only on that damn "august" and the other worst offenders.
Sometimes frequency specific compression will work, if only used on the offending words or syllables. When I've tracked something like this, and I can't fix it with a paste, I usually dial in the worst sounding frequency on my midrange eq, and crank it down a bit when the word(s) come along while I'm mixing it. The mixer might need to employ a similar fix. As far as the fact that you fucked up a bit.....big deal. (in my opinion...) Learn from your mistakes. If it's a good vocal, a little fix for an occasional bit of distortion is way better than a well recorded crappy vocal. I've heard enough of those to fill up 20 bathtubs with puke.
BTW, I'm sure distortion through a 6176 sounds way better than most kinds of distortion.
good luck! put on a happy face, and PROBLEMSOLVE! It Ain't Dead Yet!!
brian

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