HI
I just complete a full length CD with 17 tracks and wanted to make sure that the volume of each track were even and peaking at its loudest with out being distorted. Whats the best way to do this.
Thanks
LK
Whats the best way to even track volumes
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Har/Bal
Whats the best way to even track volumes
That depends on the nature of the music and whether you've used limiting or not.
The easiest way to do this is probably through one of the various tools provided on various platforms (ie. Soundforge, Wavelabs etc) that do automated normalisation. The only caveat is that I believe these only really work accurately provided that the tracks don't have a lot of dynamic range (ie. tracks with quiet parts and loud parts).
With automated normalisation you'll probably find that it will make tracks with a wide dynamic range too loud relative to the other tracks, although if limiting is used it may come out ok (apart from the fact that you'll loose your dynamic range).
If you don't want to lose your dynamics but have a consistent level you'll most likely have to do it manually. Har-Bal can help you there through the reference comparison feature (ie. switching preview between the EQ track and the ref track). Just pick the loudest part of the track you want to normalise and compare it to the loudest part of your ref track.
I'm don't really have much pro experience in these matters so I guess Earle could give you a more imformative response. I'll suggest he post a reply also.
Regards,
Paavo
The easiest way to do this is probably through one of the various tools provided on various platforms (ie. Soundforge, Wavelabs etc) that do automated normalisation. The only caveat is that I believe these only really work accurately provided that the tracks don't have a lot of dynamic range (ie. tracks with quiet parts and loud parts).
With automated normalisation you'll probably find that it will make tracks with a wide dynamic range too loud relative to the other tracks, although if limiting is used it may come out ok (apart from the fact that you'll loose your dynamic range).
If you don't want to lose your dynamics but have a consistent level you'll most likely have to do it manually. Har-Bal can help you there through the reference comparison feature (ie. switching preview between the EQ track and the ref track). Just pick the loudest part of the track you want to normalise and compare it to the loudest part of your ref track.
I'm don't really have much pro experience in these matters so I guess Earle could give you a more imformative response. I'll suggest he post a reply also.
Regards,
Paavo
-
Har/Bal
Whats the best way to even track volumes
The best process to use to insure your track volumes are consistent is to do the following.
1. When recording initially, make sure you stay out of the yellow and red areas. Try to stay at the top of the green.
2. After you have recorded all your tracks and are mixing down, and any track does not appear to sound loud enough, do not bring up the volume of that track. Instead bring down the volume of the remaining tracks.
3. When you are satisfied with the mix, link all tracks together and bring them all up together, making sure none of them hit the yellow. You may need to bring up the master fader as well when you are finished.
4. Export your tracks as wave, aiff, etc as a stereo file and prepare for mastering.
5. If using a multiband or RCL compressor make sure that when apply gain you keep out of the red. Do not over compress!!
Compressor settings.
Attack Release Ratio Hard/Soft Gain Red
Mixes Fast 0.4s/Auto 2 - 6:1 Soft 2 - 10dB (Stereo Link On)
5. Export stereo file into Har-Bal and equalize.
6. Apply a limiter to the overall track and set the outceiling to -0.3 and adjust the threshold so there is constant activity in the outceiling.
When burning to CD, you have a choice here. You can actually highlight all your tracks and right click on them in Roxio and apply "volume leveling". This is a form of normalization. While I don't really beleive in normalization, if you have followed the process mentioned above there will be a minimum amount of normalization and it will even out your track volumes without fail.
This is a rough overview of the process. I am sure many of you out there use many devices to record and master your recordings, but this process is a great outline in keeping your volume levels consistent. Another thing you want to do is run statistics on your stereo file by looking at the RMS power. The average commercial song out there is between -9 and -14db. The lower the number the louder the song. If you are using Sound Forge you can find it by going to Tools/Statistics.
1. When recording initially, make sure you stay out of the yellow and red areas. Try to stay at the top of the green.
2. After you have recorded all your tracks and are mixing down, and any track does not appear to sound loud enough, do not bring up the volume of that track. Instead bring down the volume of the remaining tracks.
3. When you are satisfied with the mix, link all tracks together and bring them all up together, making sure none of them hit the yellow. You may need to bring up the master fader as well when you are finished.
4. Export your tracks as wave, aiff, etc as a stereo file and prepare for mastering.
5. If using a multiband or RCL compressor make sure that when apply gain you keep out of the red. Do not over compress!!
Compressor settings.
Attack Release Ratio Hard/Soft Gain Red
Mixes Fast 0.4s/Auto 2 - 6:1 Soft 2 - 10dB (Stereo Link On)
5. Export stereo file into Har-Bal and equalize.
6. Apply a limiter to the overall track and set the outceiling to -0.3 and adjust the threshold so there is constant activity in the outceiling.
When burning to CD, you have a choice here. You can actually highlight all your tracks and right click on them in Roxio and apply "volume leveling". This is a form of normalization. While I don't really beleive in normalization, if you have followed the process mentioned above there will be a minimum amount of normalization and it will even out your track volumes without fail.
This is a rough overview of the process. I am sure many of you out there use many devices to record and master your recordings, but this process is a great outline in keeping your volume levels consistent. Another thing you want to do is run statistics on your stereo file by looking at the RMS power. The average commercial song out there is between -9 and -14db. The lower the number the louder the song. If you are using Sound Forge you can find it by going to Tools/Statistics.