compressing the final mix

M

malgovert

Member
I have been following dachay2tnr's thread in the cw forum re this topic - from which I have learned a lot - however this is the situation: I have a final mix, exported in .wav format, which for the most part hovers around -18db and -12db - in other words it is too quiet. It consists of just two acoustic guitars and a some vocals. it's loudest point is around -5db. Given that the final mix should be compressed in order to raise the overall volume I am not sure where to go next - what I have tried (in sound forge) is raising the volume first by about 12db (which makes it distorted) and then trying to compress it. however I have no clue which compressor settings to use - and none of them seem to make it sound any good. The best one I could find was a softknee with threshold of -24db at ratio 2:1 (do i hear you laughing into your coffee :)). I have a book that suggests always using -6db at 4:1 if you are not sure - but this doesn't seem to have any effect - every setting i try leaves it still sounding really distorted or 'squashed', or both. Is there any kind of ballpark setting I could apply for a final mix of this kind? or am i going about it the wrong way? Should i be compressing first then raising the volume? I'm sure there must be a way but i can't figure it out... Thanks. malgo.
 
Malgovert,

Here's a suggestion since your pieces are already in .wav format. Download "audiograbber" if you haven't already.

http://www.audiograbber.com

It has a function called "normalize" which will bring the overall volume of a file (or group of files) up to conventional listening levels. It also has a compress feature within the normalize advanced settings that you may want to explore. Make duplicates or your .wav files before you normalize because you can't undo with this SW.

Mark
 
Think about it!

If you raise the level of the audio to the point that it is distorting, then are compressing it (compression will create it's own form of distortion), you are compressing distortion too! Not a good thing eh?

Try compressing then raising the volume. That is the purpose of the Make Up Gain on the compressor, to raise the volume AFTER you compress so that you can get a hotter signal. You will find that it works much better this way....:)

Forget about Normalizers. They don't work! I refuse to explain why again, but I am sure that doing a search on this BBS will net you the MANY times I have explained why normalizers are crap. (sorry MGS, not picking on you, just now I feel about bogus normalizers vs. good compression)

Good luck.

Ed
 
Yo Malgo:

I sure like the way Ed tells it the way it is.

You won't be in the Sand Dune area forever, will you?

When you get back to the big stores, check on the new 24 bit stations coming to market. Like, the new Roland and its adversary, Yamaha has a new box in the 24 bit realm too.

They look good and when I get tired of the MD-8, I'm sure I'm going in that direction. NO COMPRESSION and some good sounds.

But, a big but, I don't know what Ed thinks about these new 24 bit digital recorders yet. But, I'm sure I will find out.

Hey man, if you have fun then fun will have you staying young. [little Chiasmatic device there, as per text]

Green Hornet
 
Ah! I had a feeling normalizing was going to rear its ugly head - Ed yes I have read some of your posts about them - their purpose leaves me confused since while so many seem to denounce them, there seem to be many others who advocate them as an indispensable part of the process of recording audio, including the magazine I subscribe to, who say you should never forget to normalize. However, in cwpa8, I have never been able to use it - there don't seem to be any settings to adjust- - I just click normalize and it practically blows my audio out of the screen. SF, on the other hand, has a lot of settings and scans which I haven't figured out yet (what's RMS?). In short, I have never been able to use the normalizing function without subsequently having to undo. So if it doesn't work for the final mix either, what is its purpose? Does it work for anything?

Back to the topic of compressing the final mix - universally advised settings in general situations seem to be around -6db at 4:1 or less, but to tell the truth those settings don't seem to do anything for this song and certainly don't alter the dynamics of the waveform sufficeintly for me to be able to increase the overall volume. Also when the makeup gain is on auto it seems to really distort it. What i did try, however was a -12db limiter, which did not adversely afect the sound and did make the waveform look a lot more respectable - at least a lot more like the waveforms I have seen on pro recordings - I can then increase the volume of the whole thing since the wave dynamics are more uniform, but even if all the peaks remain below zero it still starts to sound kind of crappy as the volume goes up... not crisp and clear like the pro recordings - Do you think it might be my original recording quality or my eq settings that are responsible for this? really i think the best sounding version I have had so far is the original quiet mix - but I changed it to an mp3 and it really is much TOO quiet so I need to do something about it - also if i wanted to put it to cd...

Green Hornet - no compression and good sounds might be just the ticket! - In December I plan to stock up with a few new bits of gear - I might keep my eyes open for those 24-bit stations :)

Cheers - Malgo.
 
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