Apps and tips for making two audio sources sound like they were recorded in the same room?

Sabicas

I’ve faced this problem before and futzed around with EQ and reverb until I improved the situation somewhat, but I’m starting the year with the attitude that I need to invest in better tools to make up for my deficient ears.

I’m currently editing a series of interviews and, while the host uses a consistent mic and room, the interviewees have differing circumstances. it’s a typical problem with amateur recording. The host is close-micing with a dynamic mic while the interviewer sounds like they were mic’d at distance with a condenser that captured too much of the room.

Are there any recommended tools for EQ matching two sources? Or for giving the illusion of removing reverb? Maybe for “reverb matching” where if I can’t remove the reverb from one source, I can at least add it to the dryer source to approximate a similar room?

I currently use Brusfi which does remove some ambiance, but doesn’t solve the problem of sounding “distant”.

I use LRC5 which is a free AU EQ, but it doesn’t have any visual analyses. I’m hoping there’s an easy to use but powerful EQ for people with average ears.

Thanks in advance for any tips or recommendations.

espiegel123

@Sabicas said:
I’ve faced this problem before and futzed around with EQ and reverb until I improved the situation somewhat, but I’m starting the year with the attitude that I need to invest in better tools to make up for my deficient ears.

I’m currently editing a series of interviews and, while the host uses a consistent mic and room, the interviewees have differing circumstances. it’s a typical problem with amateur recording. The host is close-micing with a dynamic mic while the interviewer sounds like they were mic’d at distance with a condenser that captured too much of the room.

Are there any recommended tools for EQ matching two sources? Or for giving the illusion of removing reverb? Maybe for “reverb matching” where if I can’t remove the reverb from one source, I can at least add it to the dryer source to approximate a similar room?

I currently use Brusfi which does remove some ambiance, but doesn’t solve the problem of sounding “distant”.

I use LRC5 which is a free AU EQ, but it doesn’t have any visual analyses. I’m hoping there’s an easy to use but powerful EQ for people with average ears.

Thanks in advance for any tips or recommendations.

Room IRs. For movies, TV, radio documentaries, and even music mastering, room impulse responses are often used as 'glue' to put everything in the same space. In addition, a room tone recording run at a very low level helps, too. A room tone recording is a recording made in a room when everything is silent. When doing the sound mixing for video, tv, radio, they will loop a long section of room tone for all scenes that take place in the same location.

You can find some IRs out there for various spaces and rooms.

Sabicas

@espiegel123 said:

@Sabicas said:
I’ve faced this problem before and futzed around with EQ and reverb until I improved the situation somewhat, but I’m starting the year with the attitude that I need to invest in better tools to make up for my deficient ears.

I’m currently editing a series of interviews and, while the host uses a consistent mic and room, the interviewees have differing circumstances. it’s a typical problem with amateur recording. The host is close-micing with a dynamic mic while the interviewer sounds like they were mic’d at distance with a condenser that captured too much of the room.

Are there any recommended tools for EQ matching two sources? Or for giving the illusion of removing reverb? Maybe for “reverb matching” where if I can’t remove the reverb from one source, I can at least add it to the dryer source to approximate a similar room?

I currently use Brusfi which does remove some ambiance, but doesn’t solve the problem of sounding “distant”.

I use LRC5 which is a free AU EQ, but it doesn’t have any visual analyses. I’m hoping there’s an easy to use but powerful EQ for people with average ears.

Thanks in advance for any tips or recommendations.

Room IRs. For movies, TV, radio documentaries, and even music mastering, room impulse responses are often used as 'glue' to put everything in the same space. In addition, a room tone recording run at a very low level helps, too. A room tone recording is a recording made in a room when everything is silent. When doing the sound mixing for video, tv, radio, they will loop a long section of room tone for all scenes that take place in the same location.

You can find some IRs out there for various spaces and rooms.

I have Thafknar and a ton of free IRs of various spaces. Would you suggest trying one IR on both sources or only on one source to try to match the other.

Is this just a trial and error exercise where I audition different IRs until I find something that works or is there any kind of process? I assume I can skip the crazy big spaces and go straight to small room IRs.

CracklePot

You could try this instead of your own IRs.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rum-room-simulator/id1582984465

Transient shapers are the tool to use to try to remove reverb tails. I have this one and it is good.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fac-transient/id1354088081

Try compression and a visual EQ to try to get the distant to sound closer. Use the closer host recording for reference. There is a good visual eq from 4 pockets.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/visual-eq-console-auv3-plugin/id1469451699
There is also a Visual compressor and Visual reverb from 4 pockets, but I don’t have those.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app-bundle/visuals-1-auv3-plugins/id1475735337

Finally, I think the new Mastering app by Seven Systems would be worth a look. It is a precise compressor and eq with some type of reference matching feature. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks excellent.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trinity-audio-mastering/id6444727870

I suggest you process the distant recordings to match the close one as much as possible, then add the room reverb and even the empty room track that espiegel123 suggested. Use the same room reverb plug-in and try running a bit of noise into it to simulate the empty air.

espiegel123

@Sabicas said:

@espiegel123 said:

@Sabicas said:
I’ve faced this problem before and futzed around with EQ and reverb until I improved the situation somewhat, but I’m starting the year with the attitude that I need to invest in better tools to make up for my deficient ears.

I’m currently editing a series of interviews and, while the host uses a consistent mic and room, the interviewees have differing circumstances. it’s a typical problem with amateur recording. The host is close-micing with a dynamic mic while the interviewer sounds like they were mic’d at distance with a condenser that captured too much of the room.

Are there any recommended tools for EQ matching two sources? Or for giving the illusion of removing reverb? Maybe for “reverb matching” where if I can’t remove the reverb from one source, I can at least add it to the dryer source to approximate a similar room?

I currently use Brusfi which does remove some ambiance, but doesn’t solve the problem of sounding “distant”.

I use LRC5 which is a free AU EQ, but it doesn’t have any visual analyses. I’m hoping there’s an easy to use but powerful EQ for people with average ears.

Thanks in advance for any tips or recommendations.

Room IRs. For movies, TV, radio documentaries, and even music mastering, room impulse responses are often used as 'glue' to put everything in the same space. In addition, a room tone recording run at a very low level helps, too. A room tone recording is a recording made in a room when everything is silent. When doing the sound mixing for video, tv, radio, they will loop a long section of room tone for all scenes that take place in the same location.

You can find some IRs out there for various spaces and rooms.

I have Thafknar and a ton of free IRs of various spaces. Would you suggest trying one IR on both sources or only on one source to try to match the other.

Is this just a trial and error exercise where I audition different IRs until I find something that works or is there any kind of process? I assume I can skip the crazy big spaces and go straight to small room IRs.

Use the same IR on both. You could try using Brusfri on all the sources first to eliminate differences, but that might not be necessary. If you have useable room tone from one your location recordings, you could use that throughout.

Some trial and error may be necessary to find a room you like.

I heard a great mini-documentary about the tricks a radio drama podcast needed to use during the early pandemic since each actor was recording their parts at home. They played the unprocessed dialog and the processed dialog and it was amazing.

Endgegner

Hi! Maybe this could help you? https://apps.apple.com/de/app/brusfri/id1289165912

LeaTurner

With fabfilter Eq you can play the original recording and save it as an Eq curve. Then load fabfilter Eq on the new recording and load the Eq curve you saved from the old recording

espiegel123

@LeaTurner said:
With fabfilter Eq you can play the original recording and save it as an Eq curve. Then load fabfilter Eq on the new recording and load the Eq curve you saved from the old recording

Really sounding like the same room involve reflections and not just eq -- which is why room IRs are so commonly used in audio post-production for this task as they capture both the eq aspect and the refelections aspect. One can try with a short reverb and eq -- but that is way more work than finding an IR for a space with roughly the characteristics one is looking for.

Simon

@Sabicas said:
The host is close-micing with a dynamic mic while the interviewer sounds like they were mic’d at distance with a condenser that captured too much of the room.

Re-record the interviewer.

rs2000

On desktop OS, there are "De-Convolvers" that try to remove the room response from the signal.
Ideally, you'll have two impulse responses from that room: One recorded with an impulse fired from the host's mouth and one fired from the interviewer's mouth.
Combined with EQ and possibly adding a little bit of the (distant!) impulse response from that room to the interviewee's recording, that's what I think you could do about it.

Strizbiz

Im not sure if youre looking for an Ios only solution but this plugin by Waves called Clarity vx is really great for removing background and ambient noises from vocals.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/clarity-vx#clarity-vx-vocal-noise-reduction

They have a pro version which cost a lot more but is even more aimed at noise reduction for dialog.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/clarity-vx-pro#introducing-clarity-vx-pro-noise-reduction-voice

The non pro version cost $35 and works fine for me, the pro version is $249 but if you're making it pay for itself in the end and you're really serious with working with dialog then I guess that's the way to go. At any rate you can download and try fully functioning demos. I forget how long the demos work.

Sabicas

I tried the IR solution and it worked pretty well. Then....I learned there were two mics in the room during the interview. Digging a little further resulted in me receiving another track of the same audio, but obviously closer mic'd and better quality. So, I'm starting over with the editing but the end result might not need much processing. I like this IR solution and will use it in the future.

@Strizbiz I'm iDevice-only and don't plan on buying a PC or MAC. For various reasons, I'm determined to stick to iPads, understanding that there are inherent limitations.