Initial recording stripe editing

Streamlining raw recordings to remove the messy excess, maximise editing ease, aid archiving and minimise data storage

Field recordings and found sound sessions can produce lengthy files that eat precious data storage, lose their references and, when opened, look like a daunting edit prospect, the death knell for the creative spark. As well as good file management practice (covered elsewhere here), prepare those initial raw recordings for editing at the earliest opportunity. As shown below, removing unwanted noise can be a good place to start, leaving the material you want at its most accessible as well as reducing file size for archiving. When working with wave editors, use the markers to identify sections and add explanatory info that can be forgotten; your future self will thank you! If working in a DAW you can also go crazy with the markers, but also use file minimising where possible to keep the storage space from ballooning.

> Normalisation is the last stage before archiving/editing. Ambient material can sound like noise when turned up, so normalising to a peak of -12dBFS is good for monitoring and processing headroom. Raise more dynamic material to -9dBFS to -6dBFS.

> To bring this 30-second recording of melting ice up to standard for editing and processing, the unwanted noises (mic movement, coughs, etc) that are above average level need to be highlighted and deleted to leave a more consistent sound level to work from.

> This recording possesses little tonal/low frequency content so this crude deletion process has left no obvious artefacts but a second pass can get rid of these faster than carefully editing around unwanted material. What’s left is a more even audio stripe.