Manually editing waveforms to get rid of 'spikes'

[st9046]

Hi all,
I have a live recording of my band where there are distorted 'spikes' here and there where the kick drum has overloaded the signal. Can anyone advise if it's possible to edit the waveform in Garageband 3 to get rid of these and if not, if there's a third-party app I can use ? Alternatively, do I need to go to Logic ? I used to be able to do this kind of thing in Cubase I recall. I have an iMac.
Thanks,
Steve

 

[GibsonMarshall]

Hi all,
I have a live recording of my band where there are distorted 'spikes' here and there where the kick drum has overloaded the signal. Can anyone advise if it's possible to edit the waveform in Garageband 3 to get rid of these and if not, if there's a third-party app I can use ? Alternatively, do I need to go to Logic ? I used to be able to do this kind of thing in Cubase I recall. I have an iMac.
Thanks,
Steve

Hey Steve,

I use Izotope RX to do this, but it does a lot more than just editing waveforms. It can get rid of hum, background noises and just about everything else you can think of.

It's kind of an expensive plugin, but it has been worth every penny since I've been using it.

 

[Luap]

If it is literally just small spikes, then it's quite easy (but a little tedious perhaps) to edit them manually with any waveform editor. I expect even the free ones can do it. Zoom in on the spike, and attenuate it. Or do whatever you want with it.. I use a cheap stereo editor called Sound Studio. But as I say, the free ones can likely do this also.

 

[zimv20]

I have a live recording of my band where there are distorted 'spikes' here and there where the kick drum has overloaded the signal.

is the kick on its own track?

 

[Jihadjoe75]

Try recording at a lower volume. I'm a big fan of having a lot of headroom. You get a much broader dynamic range that way even after compression.

 

[pkoch1]

Try recording at a lower volume. I'm a big fan of having a lot of headroom. You get a much broader dynamic range that way even after compression.

Well...you should always have the right amount of headroom, meaning enough level so you don't get noise, but not too much that you don't get distortion. Compressing a low-level signal can add lots of noise very quickly.

 

[ashjamben]

i normally audacity for most of my wave editing, its free and simple to use

 

[st9046]

Thanks for the replies all. I feel a bit of a dope actually as I twigged that I had my Zoom H2 recorder set to high microphone sensitivity. Not very sensible when you're recording a live band. It's worked out OK though as I ended up buying Logic Express 8 and I'm really enjoying it. Plus it's got audio editing capability if I need it so it's all good.
Cheers,
Steve