Like you, Sonusman, I don't tend to use multiband compression that much because it's not a tool that I have a ton of experience with. But I know at least a couple of mastering engineers that work wonders with them, so I think their value is directly proportional to the skill of the user.
If the peaks turn out to be fast transients that spike way above the average program, it shouldn't be that hard to fix. Any compressor should be able to do the job, once you find the right threshold (high enough so that the average program level doesn't trigger it) and attack-time setting (pretty quick). Use a fairly high ratio and you should be able to create a LOT of headroom fairly transparently. The advantage of a multiband is sometimes you can get even more transparent compression than with a full-bandwidth compressor. This is one of those situations where a spectrum analysis program can be very useful in spotting the problem frequencies, which, as you pointed out, may be in the harmonic overtones as well as the fundamentals.
In a DAW system, you can even try drawing the peaks down with a pencil tool. But be real careful to work on a COPY of the file, since often that type of editing is destructive, and you may not like the results.
Personally, I've never met a "normalize" algorhythm I've really liked, so that's one step I'd avoid. There are plenty of other ways to get "louder" tracks.
If the peaks turn out to be fast transients that spike way above the average program, it shouldn't be that hard to fix. Any compressor should be able to do the job, once you find the right threshold (high enough so that the average program level doesn't trigger it) and attack-time setting (pretty quick). Use a fairly high ratio and you should be able to create a LOT of headroom fairly transparently. The advantage of a multiband is sometimes you can get even more transparent compression than with a full-bandwidth compressor. This is one of those situations where a spectrum analysis program can be very useful in spotting the problem frequencies, which, as you pointed out, may be in the harmonic overtones as well as the fundamentals.
In a DAW system, you can even try drawing the peaks down with a pencil tool. But be real careful to work on a COPY of the file, since often that type of editing is destructive, and you may not like the results.
Personally, I've never met a "normalize" algorhythm I've really liked, so that's one step I'd avoid. There are plenty of other ways to get "louder" tracks.