Breakthrough?
Sunday, September 4th, 2022 02:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioIt's early Sunday morning, and I'm still up from Saturday night. No recording obviously, on this Labor Day weekend where three different neighbors were playing music and partying out there.
But I did get back to that great, wing tapper, canopy recording from last week, where if you turn down the magic frequency, the bush crickets go way into the background and you can suddenly hear the leaf tappers and field crickets better.
That much, I'd convinced myself is a justified use of the EQ*, having tried it over and over the past few days in loudspeakers and headphones.
No appreciable loss of sound quality to anything else... that one magic frequency does only kill the bush crickets. And that's a powerful tool going forward! It means everything I've ever recorded in the back yard can be remastered to sound better with just one little adjustment.
--<>--
But, as I was saying in the last entry, there was this default background noise... just coming from the air and the city at large... that I'd never heard before, in loudspeakers.
All previous years, I just monitored these S8 recordings in headphones, trusting that it would sound natural because I wasn't messing with any EQ or even editing much.
But... in loudspeakers, with a bass woofer... there is definitely a lot of mud and wash in the background that doesn't need to be there!
I did some experimentation with trying to tone that down with the EQ, again, but... no!.. this background wash was too spread out over too many frequencies to just EQ out, without killing the main signal.
But then I remembered that last June, before there were any crickets around, I made some silence recordings outside!
I made two different recordings outside, totaling three hours... of just absolute silence... or, more specifically... nothing but that background mud and wash coming from the world at large... with no foreground signal at all!.. no cars, planes, wind chimes, crickets, or anything!
And after some testing, I found that yes!.. with a noise profile from the silence recording... you can subtract that background noise from any of the cricket recordings, and it doesn't harm the sound quality of the crickets, or the cars, planes, sirens, etc... but it DOES cut that background mud and wash way down!
There is no perfect solution, of course!.. I don't have access to cutting edge AI learning algorithms that could work miracles!...
But, when I toned down the bush crickets with the one magic EQ frequency... and then did noise reduction, using the profile from the June silence recording... that canopy track of wing tappers from last week suddenly became a LOT more clear and listenable!
--<>--
Both in headphones, and over loudspeakers, it was not only more clear, but suddenly you could REALLY hear field crickets in the foreground!
Field crickets I didn't even know were there!
Suddenly the field crickets and the wing tappers were front and center, and the bush crickets were in the background like they should be... and the actual background was... even more in the background!
Again, not absolute perfection, but I can save Snoozefest 2022... and I can probably also use these techniques to remaster 2021 and 2020 to sound more clear and listenable too!
------------{=0=}------------
I started work on Project Moonrise, late tonight.
It's main bed is that wing tapper canopy track from last week... that I'd already combed out all the dog barks and other crap from... with the bush crickets, and the background wash also toned down.
But the intro... the first 50 seconds, is the whole orchestra tuning up!
I had six tracks, recorded betweeen late July, and early August, going from almost no crickets, to almost the full orchestra. So, I did a 45 second mash of those six takes... with noise reduction... and feathered it into some mature field crickets from the front yard on the 16th... and then into the big wing tapper canopy track.
It's only 50 seconds... fading in until we're in the canopy track... but it legitimately sounds like an orchestra tuning up! It's very cool!
That is how Moonrise will start!
--<>--
From there it's just that canopy track of wing tappers, but I'm feathering in small sections of the front yard field crickets, every so often.
You'll recall I had this idea of a recording that would float between the canopy and the ground.
This is basically that same idea, but it's from the back yard treetops... down to the front yard briefly, and then back up to the canopy.
That front yard grond recording was also combed of all the car passes on the street and dog barking fits and soforth... and the same noise cancelling was applied as to the canopy track... without any need to mess with the EQ, because there are no bush crickets.
It seems to be going well!
I can easily get a good hour for, Moonrise, and I'm hoping it will be the track to immediately follow, Dusk, in the 2022 playlist!
If things go my way, I could have it mastered and uploded by Sunday night / Monday morning.
------------{=0=}------------
All these techniques then, can probably get me five more hours of noctournal, and a dawn recording to end the playlist.
Killing the bush crickets with EQ... noise cancelling with the silence recording from June... and a bit of inventive cross fading over each hour between the canopy and the ground, to keep each track interesting!
That is the plan!.. and if September gives me some unexpected gems, like a good night of mole crickets or another good night of leaf tappers... all the better!
°¦}
* Equalizers can be a nightmare, because they allow you to essentially turn the volume up and down on several distinct frequency bands of the base waveform.
So, if you get carried away... slowly tweaking this and that over hours, you can convince yourself it's sounding better... but in fact you're turning the track into a horrible canny mess of mush. And in headphones, it's even easier to do this!
My rule of thumb is... never to use the EQ at all.. but if it must be used... it must be used only to turn a specific frequency DOWN.
If you use an EQ to turn a frequency UP, you're only increasing the noise on that frequency, along with the signal, and it's never good! You should never need to boost the basic recorded signal after the fact.
That's why I've gone to such lengths this year to get the S8 up into the canopy, or down low in the grass... to get it close to the desired signal.
EQing a band down, means you're reducing noise on that band, along with signal you don't want. That can still affect neighboring frequencies adversely, but subtracting signal with an EQ is always better than trying to add.
In the case of the bush crickets... they've evolved to broadcast on a specific band of acoustical sound, and they do a non-stop tone all night... reinforcing one another throughout the entire block interior.
So... it turns out that this is an ideal situation for an EQ. They effectively create a universal background tone on one band, that doesn't overlap significantly with other bugs like field crickets and wing tappers.
So, cranking down that one frequency does force them into the background, quite effectively!
I never dared to try this before, but I'm glad I did this year, because this technique is gonna save me a lot of headaches in the future!
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
But I did get back to that great, wing tapper, canopy recording from last week, where if you turn down the magic frequency, the bush crickets go way into the background and you can suddenly hear the leaf tappers and field crickets better.
That much, I'd convinced myself is a justified use of the EQ*, having tried it over and over the past few days in loudspeakers and headphones.
No appreciable loss of sound quality to anything else... that one magic frequency does only kill the bush crickets. And that's a powerful tool going forward! It means everything I've ever recorded in the back yard can be remastered to sound better with just one little adjustment.
But, as I was saying in the last entry, there was this default background noise... just coming from the air and the city at large... that I'd never heard before, in loudspeakers.
All previous years, I just monitored these S8 recordings in headphones, trusting that it would sound natural because I wasn't messing with any EQ or even editing much.
But... in loudspeakers, with a bass woofer... there is definitely a lot of mud and wash in the background that doesn't need to be there!
I did some experimentation with trying to tone that down with the EQ, again, but... no!.. this background wash was too spread out over too many frequencies to just EQ out, without killing the main signal.
But then I remembered that last June, before there were any crickets around, I made some silence recordings outside!
I made two different recordings outside, totaling three hours... of just absolute silence... or, more specifically... nothing but that background mud and wash coming from the world at large... with no foreground signal at all!.. no cars, planes, wind chimes, crickets, or anything!
And after some testing, I found that yes!.. with a noise profile from the silence recording... you can subtract that background noise from any of the cricket recordings, and it doesn't harm the sound quality of the crickets, or the cars, planes, sirens, etc... but it DOES cut that background mud and wash way down!
There is no perfect solution, of course!.. I don't have access to cutting edge AI learning algorithms that could work miracles!...
But, when I toned down the bush crickets with the one magic EQ frequency... and then did noise reduction, using the profile from the June silence recording... that canopy track of wing tappers from last week suddenly became a LOT more clear and listenable!
Both in headphones, and over loudspeakers, it was not only more clear, but suddenly you could REALLY hear field crickets in the foreground!
Field crickets I didn't even know were there!
Suddenly the field crickets and the wing tappers were front and center, and the bush crickets were in the background like they should be... and the actual background was... even more in the background!
Again, not absolute perfection, but I can save Snoozefest 2022... and I can probably also use these techniques to remaster 2021 and 2020 to sound more clear and listenable too!
I started work on Project Moonrise, late tonight.
It's main bed is that wing tapper canopy track from last week... that I'd already combed out all the dog barks and other crap from... with the bush crickets, and the background wash also toned down.
But the intro... the first 50 seconds, is the whole orchestra tuning up!
I had six tracks, recorded betweeen late July, and early August, going from almost no crickets, to almost the full orchestra. So, I did a 45 second mash of those six takes... with noise reduction... and feathered it into some mature field crickets from the front yard on the 16th... and then into the big wing tapper canopy track.
It's only 50 seconds... fading in until we're in the canopy track... but it legitimately sounds like an orchestra tuning up! It's very cool!
That is how Moonrise will start!
From there it's just that canopy track of wing tappers, but I'm feathering in small sections of the front yard field crickets, every so often.
You'll recall I had this idea of a recording that would float between the canopy and the ground.
This is basically that same idea, but it's from the back yard treetops... down to the front yard briefly, and then back up to the canopy.
That front yard grond recording was also combed of all the car passes on the street and dog barking fits and soforth... and the same noise cancelling was applied as to the canopy track... without any need to mess with the EQ, because there are no bush crickets.
It seems to be going well!
I can easily get a good hour for, Moonrise, and I'm hoping it will be the track to immediately follow, Dusk, in the 2022 playlist!
If things go my way, I could have it mastered and uploded by Sunday night / Monday morning.
All these techniques then, can probably get me five more hours of noctournal, and a dawn recording to end the playlist.
Killing the bush crickets with EQ... noise cancelling with the silence recording from June... and a bit of inventive cross fading over each hour between the canopy and the ground, to keep each track interesting!
That is the plan!.. and if September gives me some unexpected gems, like a good night of mole crickets or another good night of leaf tappers... all the better!
°¦}
* Equalizers can be a nightmare, because they allow you to essentially turn the volume up and down on several distinct frequency bands of the base waveform.
So, if you get carried away... slowly tweaking this and that over hours, you can convince yourself it's sounding better... but in fact you're turning the track into a horrible canny mess of mush. And in headphones, it's even easier to do this!
My rule of thumb is... never to use the EQ at all.. but if it must be used... it must be used only to turn a specific frequency DOWN.
If you use an EQ to turn a frequency UP, you're only increasing the noise on that frequency, along with the signal, and it's never good! You should never need to boost the basic recorded signal after the fact.
That's why I've gone to such lengths this year to get the S8 up into the canopy, or down low in the grass... to get it close to the desired signal.
EQing a band down, means you're reducing noise on that band, along with signal you don't want. That can still affect neighboring frequencies adversely, but subtracting signal with an EQ is always better than trying to add.
In the case of the bush crickets... they've evolved to broadcast on a specific band of acoustical sound, and they do a non-stop tone all night... reinforcing one another throughout the entire block interior.
So... it turns out that this is an ideal situation for an EQ. They effectively create a universal background tone on one band, that doesn't overlap significantly with other bugs like field crickets and wing tappers.
So, cranking down that one frequency does force them into the background, quite effectively!
I never dared to try this before, but I'm glad I did this year, because this technique is gonna save me a lot of headaches in the future!
