Creating a 'virtual room' to be added to a clean recording of a piano?

[K.B.]

Hi,

Long time since I posted here. (I wonder if any of my old buddies are still around? )

I'm helping a TV producer pal who's sound recordist/engineer has been called away.

He's been recording the performance of a classical pianist for a video. It's a good clean recording. Two mics were used to record the keyboard, and one for the sound board. There was a large dynamic range, so for each of the mics he recorded two tracks - one with the level set high for the quiet bits, and one set low for the loud bits. That's 3 mics x 2 tracks each = A total of six tracks.

I've not heard the result, but I'm told the quality is good, though a little phasing is reported.

The problem is that there's no room sound recorded - it's very dry. My friend the producer wants to hear the setting. He was going to shoot again(!) but I said that's not necessary.

I'm proposing adding 'the room' with a convolution reverb. I have access to a pro tools suite (PT8 I think) in a college over the Xmas break with AudioEase Altiverb installed, and good monitoring - but unfortunately no one there seems to know how to use it properly!

He wants a stereo track. The camera was very close to the pianist, so the audio should reflect that.

So, how should I best set this PT session up?
And how do I set up combining the high and low tracks? Some kind of gating to switch between..?
If phasing is indeed present, what's the fix?

I've not used PT for years, so I'm very rusty! Looking forward to it though.

Cheers!

[Craig F]

Are you the last stop for audio or will it be going on to someone else?
I might set up for 2 options a little bit of room and a lot of room

[K.B.]

Last stop. This has to be good enough for TV, but not mastered to anything like cinema spec. Stereo. The producer will be on hand at the end to voice his preferences.

Cheers.


BTW I'd welcome being pointed to a tutorial or two to help me brush up.

[reichman]

And how do I set up combining the high and low tracks? Some kind of gating to switch between..?

With good mics and today's converters, I have a hard time understanding why this was necessary. See if you can choose one set of mics and go with them the whole way. If not, you will want to achieve that blend with editing first, and then worry about mixing.

Don't forget to audition conventional reverbs in addition to Altiverb. Altiverb is fabulous in post-production, but can get a little stale in music. Demo the Lexicon PCM bundle or Exponential Audio's reverbs and listen to those, too.

[K.B.]

Thanks Reichman,

I'll look into that.

The style of recording wasn't up to me, and I don't fully understand it myself. I was told that it was because the playing ranged from very soft to very loud. When I've recorded location sound (usually speech) I ride the faders, but I guess the recordist on this didn't want to do that.

[Fokke van Saane]

I am a big fan of Altiverb and TL space, i would definitely use a nice hall for classical piano. Set it up like any other reverb, in an send return setup, lower the direct some in the Altiverb and for the rest use your ears.
Dynamics is a matter of riding levels and dynamics plugins, not with mike placement.

[peter5992]

When it comes to convolution reverbs, I can warmly recommend Eastwest's Spaces. Wonderful especially for classical music, and individual instruments.

Now on sale too, 50% off - $149. It has been bench marked (not by me), testers say it can hold up its own against industry veterans like Altiverb.

From personal experience I can only say that it is a winner, and very light on CPU power.

[Henchman]

Exponential audio verbs.
Hands down.

[klaukholm]

Originally Posted by Henchman

Exponential audio verbs.
Hands down.

I second that,
for classical music, this is the best option out there unless you have a Bricasti at hand.

[BRH]

Originally Posted by K.B.

Two mics were used to record the keyboard, and one for the sound board. There was a large dynamic range, so for each of the mics he recorded two tracks - one with the level set high for the quiet bits, and one set low for the loud bits. That's 3 mics x 2 tracks each = A total of six tracks.

I've not heard the result, but I'm told the quality is good, though a little phasing is reported.


He wants a stereo track.
If phasing is indeed present, what's the fix?

I'm not understanding why this was done.
My thought is should have put 2 mics on soundboard, not keyboard and be done with it. Why split tracks when it's for TV?
use any reverb.