THREE FUCKING CLICKS

Better gear lets you hear more. Unfortunately, that also includes things you really wish you had never heard. Yesterday we found three tiny digital clicks inside Lina's vocals for *Même sans ailes*. Most people probably would not have noticed them. We did. And once you have heard them, you cannot unhear them.

The obvious question is: why not just record the vocals again? Because the takes were too good. The performance had the right tone, timing and emotion. Re-recording would have been technically easier, but creatively worse. So we decided to repair the original recording instead.

Our setup is not exactly improvised. We work with several beyerdynamic microphones, multiple DT 770 Pro headphones, three HP OMEN systems, FL Studio, Serum 2, FLEX, a large collection of plugins and now the full iZotope suite with RX, Neutron, Nectar, Ozone and the rest of the toolbox. So naturally we spent half a Saturday hunting three microscopic clicks.

We zoomed in. Then further. Then far enough to see the waveform itself. From a distance, one suspicious peak can stand out. Once you're standing in the forest, every tree looks suspicious. Cutting did not work. Tiny fades did not work. The clicks were sitting right inside the words. Eventually RX removed them cleanly without changing the performance.

Three clicks. Half a Saturday. An entire new software suite installed. You will not hear any of it in the final track. That is the point.

There was probably a more elegant way. But we were already here.

Meanwhile, Fjaka reported from his workstation:

“The letter is still in front of me.”

#TrueStory #WhatDoNormalPeopleDo

Must be nice.