Speedy VonTrapp
New member
Heya, Blue,
Can you answer a question for me? (Actually, anybody can answer that knows, I guess.)
A while ago, you were involved in....
This thread about normalizing
I certainly hate to bring something up that might put a bad taste in someone's mouth, because of the arguments that started, but, that seems to be about par for the course around here, and you seem to be able to grin and "Bear" it just fine.
I understand your points in the above thread, and agree with the facts that you presented. Being that they're facts, I guess that I'd be foolish not to.
Consider this:
Let's say, you have a budget set up, (read: like mine,) and you record something. For this case, we'll consider it something simple like a guitar amp. Let's also assume that it was x/y mic'd, so with the one track session, I've ended up with 2 tracks.
Now, I pump them into Cakewalk PA9, and they are not the same level. That doesn't sound like it should be bad, since hopefully I'm getting the levels mixed well before I record it, so hopefully they'll sound at least respectable together. But, they're not very loud at all. I know that loudness doesn't equal good, by any means. But, when I play the stuff that I record, I'd have to crank up my volume to levels that would make my ears bleed on other recordings, just so that I can hear mine at an enjoyable level.
I know that if I normalize, it will get louder. Everything on the track, and therein lies the problem with normalizing.
So, my question is what is your suggestion? My first guess, and seemingly the best idea is to "when in doubt, go for the obvious," and re-track it at hotter levels.
Is this a good idea? I'm sure that means I could re-track a million times before I get something that I think is usable. But, at a budget level, I don't have a bunch of outboard limiters, etc to use, and PA9 doesn't either. I do have a FMR RNC that I could use if that might help a bit.
What my problem is, is that when I record something, I try to make sure that it never peaks red, so that I don't get clip, and, hopefully therefore don't get distortion.
But, when I play back the recording, I am way quiet, but, but still get distortion when I turn up the volume to a level that I can hear it.
I'm not sure where the problem is. I don't want to normalize the track, because I don't want the problems that occur because of it. I would like to get decent levels right up front, without having to mess with processing. Is the mastering process after the mix is done one of the most viable options? I mean, are my recordings always going to sound quiet until mastered, no matter what I do to them, tracking wise?
This is a lot longer than I intended, and probably has more questions in it than are discernable. But, hopefully you'll be able to make some sense out of them, and shed some light for me. I'm just not sure how to change my process to help me out. Is it just a matter of tweaking the gains on my mic inputs, and the faders on the mixers, etc, to get a balance that's good volume wise, but doesn't blow a speaker?
Sorry for the book, and thanks for any help offered!
-Speedy
Can you answer a question for me? (Actually, anybody can answer that knows, I guess.)
A while ago, you were involved in....
This thread about normalizing
I certainly hate to bring something up that might put a bad taste in someone's mouth, because of the arguments that started, but, that seems to be about par for the course around here, and you seem to be able to grin and "Bear" it just fine.
I understand your points in the above thread, and agree with the facts that you presented. Being that they're facts, I guess that I'd be foolish not to.
Consider this:
Let's say, you have a budget set up, (read: like mine,) and you record something. For this case, we'll consider it something simple like a guitar amp. Let's also assume that it was x/y mic'd, so with the one track session, I've ended up with 2 tracks.
Now, I pump them into Cakewalk PA9, and they are not the same level. That doesn't sound like it should be bad, since hopefully I'm getting the levels mixed well before I record it, so hopefully they'll sound at least respectable together. But, they're not very loud at all. I know that loudness doesn't equal good, by any means. But, when I play the stuff that I record, I'd have to crank up my volume to levels that would make my ears bleed on other recordings, just so that I can hear mine at an enjoyable level.
I know that if I normalize, it will get louder. Everything on the track, and therein lies the problem with normalizing.
So, my question is what is your suggestion? My first guess, and seemingly the best idea is to "when in doubt, go for the obvious," and re-track it at hotter levels.
Is this a good idea? I'm sure that means I could re-track a million times before I get something that I think is usable. But, at a budget level, I don't have a bunch of outboard limiters, etc to use, and PA9 doesn't either. I do have a FMR RNC that I could use if that might help a bit.
What my problem is, is that when I record something, I try to make sure that it never peaks red, so that I don't get clip, and, hopefully therefore don't get distortion.
But, when I play back the recording, I am way quiet, but, but still get distortion when I turn up the volume to a level that I can hear it.
I'm not sure where the problem is. I don't want to normalize the track, because I don't want the problems that occur because of it. I would like to get decent levels right up front, without having to mess with processing. Is the mastering process after the mix is done one of the most viable options? I mean, are my recordings always going to sound quiet until mastered, no matter what I do to them, tracking wise?
This is a lot longer than I intended, and probably has more questions in it than are discernable. But, hopefully you'll be able to make some sense out of them, and shed some light for me. I'm just not sure how to change my process to help me out. Is it just a matter of tweaking the gains on my mic inputs, and the faders on the mixers, etc, to get a balance that's good volume wise, but doesn't blow a speaker?
Sorry for the book, and thanks for any help offered!
-Speedy
Not really. But I did grow up there. If you can call me "grown up," that is.