Audio editing

[diggy33]

I will start this off by saying, I am no audiophile and have zero experience using any music editing software. That said, I'd like to get some recommendations on what software I could use, freeware or purchase, to attain my goal. I have several music files in my Music library that were copied over from CD. The CD's are of live performances, which were probably converted over from audio tape (they are from DC gogo bands recorded in the 90's), and on a few in particular, the treble is really high, and bass really low. I'd like to be able to tune those files to reduce the highs a bit if possible. I've tried EQ settings when playing in the car and that just doesnt cut it. Any tips/tricks/recommendations of what I could try?

 

[usagora]

Why not use GarageBand that's already installed on your Macs?

Simply create an empty project with an audio track type, drag the sound file you want to edit onto the track, (press K to turn off the annoying metronome that's on by default for some reason), and then at the bottom you have an EQ and can add lots of plugins to experiment with more specialized EQ adjustments. I'm not an audiophile or recording engineer either - just experiment with some of that and see if you can achieve the desired result - then record what you did and apply it to other tracks.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I've never seen a simple way to do that in a batch scenario…and I say "batch" because you'd probably be able to process groups of tracks that are all from the same show as their EQ should be similar.

Audacity (free) provides a way to do it with macros. It looks daunting though!

Macros - Audacity Manual

manual.audacityteam.org

I have Logic Audio ($199) and would use that because I could put all the songs from a show onto one track (as individual regions), add EQ to the track to my liking, then export all the regions as audio files (and therefore each track) with the EQ processing automatically with one command. GarageBand doesn't have this feature.

 

[diggy33]

Ha! I hadnt even thought about Garage Band. I dont install it on my systems, so its out of sight/out of mind. I will give it and Logic Pro a try (I see it has a 90 day free trial). Something to play around with over the weekend. Thanks for the recommendations

 

[MajorFubar]

GarageBand is the answer. It also has the same graphic EQ as Logic Pro so for your purposes I don't see Logic Pro offering more functionality.

 

[usagora]

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