Mastering an interview?

[bjn99709]

Hi, I'm new to the BR - and home recording in general for that matter. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on mastering (what is it?) and in particular my present problem.....

I'm a bit of an amateur folklorist, and I recently recorded a 3 hour feild interview with the Micro BR using the plug in power setting  and a Sony electret condenser mic... so it automatically recognized and recorded the whole session on two tracks (no v-tracks). I didn't intend for the interview to go that  long but the atmosphere became light and comfortable so I let it roll...

Now, I realize in order to use the recording in any way I've got to convert it to mp3/wav format from the BR format that its presently in...... BUT first I have to master it right?...So to do that (I've already tried mastering a couple of practice songs to get used to the rig) must I wait and/or listen to the whole 3 hr session while its mastering in real time? Is there another alternative ?

Please help.

Thank you

[Blooby]

There is no shortcut mastering technique.  Having said that, you don't have to master your recording.  If I were in your shoes, I would export to MP3 or wav and then master your sound file in Magix Audio Cleaning Lab or Audacity (free at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/).

Just my two cents.

Peace.

Blooby

[bjn99709]

...I didn't realize you could skip the mastering stage and choose to export directly to mp3/wav on the BR?

thanks, j.

[guitarron]

mastering can really squash things- i like the to use as litlle compression as possible-
 i think it gives a kind open air effect

[64Guitars]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on mastering (what is it?)

Mastering is making a 2-track stereo mix from (potentially) many tracks and (optionally) applying compression and equalization effects to that mix to improve the sound.

In your case, you only have two tracks so a mixdown isn't necessary. However, you might benefit from some compression to even out the levels. It can reduce loud peaks and boost quieter portions of the recording to make the levels more consistent. I don't normally like to use compression when mastering music, but it might be very helpful for an interview.

I recently recorded a 3 hour feild interview

The length might be a problem as it could be taking up a large portion of the memory card space so that there might not be enough free space available to export the recording to a WAV file or MP3. If you find that to be the case, you can export the two tracks using the free BR Wave Converter program instead. It exports directly to the computer, so it doesn't need any free space on the memory card. However, it's limited to stereo recordings under 3 hours and 22 minutes long. If your recording is longer, you might have a problem.

Now, I realize in order to use the recording in any way I've got to convert it to mp3/wav format from the BR format that its presently in...... BUT first I have to master it right?

No. Mastering is optional. But, as I said, your field recording might benefit from some compression. Still, you could export the tracks without mastering, then apply some compression using Audacity or some similar program on your computer.

So to do that (I've already tried mastering a couple of practice songs to get used to the rig) must I wait and/or listen to the whole 3 hr session while its mastering in real time? Is there another alternative ?

Mastering is essentially re-recording. You play back the four currently-selected v-tracks through the Micro BR's built-in mixer and record the mixer's stereo output to a pair of v-tracks. So, yes, you'll have to wait for the entire 3 hours. On the other hand, if you export it directly to a WAV file using the BR Wave Converter instead of mastering on the BR, it will go much quicker. And you can compress it in Audacity without re-recording it, so that should be quicker too. However, I don't know how well Audacity will handle such a large file. It might run out of memory and cause Windows to start swapping to disk, which can be very slow. You might be better off breaking the file into smaller logical pieces in Audacity, then compress each of these smaller files separately.

[bjn99709]

This is very useful....thanks so much.....I'm also new to Audacity so it will take some time I'm sure to get around it all, but this has certainly put me on - forgive me -the right track! 

I think breaking up the recording into two parts would be the better way to go here...and compressing them seperatley...then perhaps converting to mp3 for the purpose of burning to cd?

Appreciate your thorough explanation....quite helpful.

[64Guitars]

I think breaking up the recording into two parts would be the better way to go here...and compressing them seperatley...then perhaps converting to mp3 for the purpose of burning to cd?

Export to a WAV file if you want to burn it to a CD. MP3 uses lossy data compression which has a slightly detrimental effect on the sound quality. You should generally only use MP3 format when file size is a concern, such as when emailing files or posting to the forum. WAV files are uncompressed, so the sound quality will be indistinguishable from the native BR format tracks. Granted, it probably won't make much difference on your voice recording, but it's just as easy to export to WAV as it is to MP3, so you might as well. And, if you later find that you need an MP3 to email or load into an MP3 player, for example, you can easily make one from the WAV file using Audacity.

[Pedro]

The next time you record an interview I suggest you record it directly in stereo MP3 or WAV by pressing the MP3 Mode button and then pressing Record.

[tkofaith]

Cool!  I didn't realize you could record DIRECTLY to mp3.  Thanks!