Blue Bear, can you check this out, please?

[Speedy VonTrapp]

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

[maddrummer]

Sorry I'm no Blue Bear (jk)......but why are you having trouble getting a good signal to PA9? That's the first thing you should check. Get good levels. You want to get the hottest signal to tape without clipping. If you find that to not clip you need to turn it way down, then I would say it's either the technique of the player, or compress it. Just don't over due the compression since you can't undo it. I've never used an RNC but I would think it would do fine.

You said that you play back and it's real quiet, but when you turn it up you get distortion, but it's still not loud?? Where are you turning it up from, in Cakewalk or you're mixer? What do you use to playback from?

Josh

[FattMusiek]

Why not PM him...?

Go to user cp, then private messages.

[sonicpaint]

I think you might have to explain things in more detail. I can't understand what the problem could be. You should be able to get a good hot signal recording and playing back the signal that you recorded.

Are you using a regular sound-card like SB Live? If that's the case maybe your not turning up the "wave volume" in the recording portion of your sound-card software.

Sounds like your missing something on the input side of things. Have you checked to see if the "line input" is selected in the recording properties?

Need more info, sorry.
sonicpaint

[chessrock]

Hey Speedy,


Your question is a little vague. I'd be willing to help out if you'd like to PM me.

I grew up in your town. I'm sort of an Essexville legent. Not really. But I did grow up there. If you can call me "grown up," that is.

But feel free to PM me and I'll hook ya up.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Speedy -- there's no way to answer easily via posts -- too much going on in your question and I don't have time to type it all out....

BUT... you can hit me up on MSN messenger if you like... I can walk you thru some of the concepts....... bvaleriani@hotmail.com

[Speedy VonTrapp]

Chessrock and grown-up in the same sentance? What's next? Cats and dogs living together?

j/k Chess. I pm'd ya. It's long, like all of my other posts, sorry. I seem to have a message board long-post disease, or something.

Bear, I'll add you to my msn. Hopefully sometime after kids are in bed, and before my wife and I pass out from dealing with them after working all day, I might have some time to get on and just maybe you'll be on at the same time. Thanks.

[Speedy VonTrapp]

Originally posted by FattMusiek
Why not PM him...?

Go to user cp, then private messages.

I didn't PM him, because I was hoping for the possibility that others might be able to help out, too, especially if he didn't have the chance to get back to me here. I guess I should have left his name out of the title, then perhaps. But, my issue was one that seemed directly related to that post that I linked above, where he played a major role in doing some explaining of things that I had questions about, so I thought I'd try to tap that bit of information from him.

That's why.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by Speedy VonTrapp
Bear, I'll add you to my msn. Hopefully sometime after kids are in bed, and before my wife and I pass out from dealing with them after working all day, I might have some time to get on and just maybe you'll be on at the same time. Thanks.

Cool... we could leave it to chance... OR just set up a meeting time!