Like the sound from the PA but not in the box

I don't know about "baking". Its just normalization to me. Audacity calls it "amplify". Its easy, just hit the effect, and it will tell you that the boost would be xx.xx dB to read 0.0dB. That will put the highest peak at 0. Note though, if you have a bunch of stuff at -30dB and one peak that hits -10, then it's only going to suggest -10. The largest peak rules the roost, unlike compression or limiting where the goal is to boost the average level and reign in the peaks.
 
"Baking" is making the audio crunchy from either tracking too hot or compressing the life out of it to make it loud. It's added distortion that you can't get rid of if the tracks were printed or rendered that way.

If you have tracks that were recorded a little bit too low, turning them up in your DAW after the fact is fine. I'd probably use a gain plugin rather than normalization if I needed to, but there's no real harm in normalizing something if it's too low in level to work with the fader. If the tracks are clean, that's not baking, it's just turning up the volume.
 
So how come CD's sound great from device to device, from homes to cars? How do they make it seem so easy?? Is there a pluggin for that?
CDs that sound great wherever you play them and whatever device you play them in have been mixed and mastered in environments and on systems that are acoustically neutral, i.e. you hear what has actually been recorded without the room or the monitors fooling your ears.

So as TalismanRich noted, if you are listening to bright speakers, you would be inclined to boost the bottom end to even it out when mixing. But when you then play that material elsewhere, the boosted bottom will make the mix sound muddy and boomy. Conversely, if you mix on monitors with a strong bottom end, you might compensate by pulling the bass out a bit. When they get played elsewhere, this will show up as an overly bright mix.

The quality and variety of devices that something will be played on is pretty well limitless, so the best way of optimising a mix for all these is to simply be as accurate as possible.
 
"Baking" is making the audio crunchy from either tracking too hot or compressing the life out of it to make it loud. It's added distortion that you can't get rid of if the tracks were printed or rendered that way.

If you have tracks that were recorded a little bit too low, turning them up in your DAW after the fact is fine. I'd probably use a gain plugin rather than normalization if I needed to, but there's no real harm in normalizing something if it's too low in level to work with the fader. If the tracks are clean, that's not baking, it's just turning up the volume.

Don't know about other DAWs but in Samplitude you can set the normalization to any 'boost' degree you want. I hve never quite worked it out but just run a number and see how it turns out. If slammed to 0dB fs I fook about a bit and try again.

Dave.
 
I'm getting it.

Reaper has that too. Its called normalization.

Let me tell you something that I also like . You can play something clean/dry then loop it. Playing with the loop I can add effects post very easily, changing patches, exploring sounds. That said I am disconnected from it, so when I hear something cool going on , I cannot emote into it with the instrument. It has already been played. It only effects what was played. There is always take #2 right?
 
I That said I am disconnected from it, so when I hear something cool going on , I cannot emote into it with the instrument. It has already been played. It only effects what was played. There is always take #2 right?

Once you have a sound that you like, you can hit the software monitoring button on Reaper, then record take 2 while hearing that sound as you play.
 
What have you got for excessive quacking? The voice from preamp coloration can become duck , or goose like. Quacking on occasion. NOT cracking, that is different, quacking.

If it walks like duck and talks like duck..
It could be a problem.
 

Attachments

  • quacklikeaduck.mp3
    330.2 KB · Views: 8
I think think you've got a scratch in the record causing the needle to jump. Try putting a nickel on top of the tonearm. :rolleyes:
 
That is a copied/repeated single word pronoun ' I ' cut from the vocal line.

Sounds like a flock of geese. That gives me an idea.

How far can you get recording a CAT's vocals, and vocoding them for backups? Any artist ever credit their housecat as a backup singer?
20191222_171247.jpg
 
Most cats purrfur to sing lead. You might have use a lot of autotune on them.








....... I'm so ashamed of myself for posting this!

Merry Christmas!
 
Don't know about other DAWs but in Samplitude you can set the normalization to any 'boost' degree you want. .

Normalization, is that something that every analog instrument track should have applied after tracking? I think it sounds better and the peaks are easier to see for nudging.

Then for properly recording vocals, do I mic up the PA at the PA speaker? Electrified PA voice correct? Not recording the breathed air from my mouth. Kind of once removed.

Screen shot of slider positions and level at -6. And sound clip. After normalization.

Annotation 2019-12-30 174950.jpg

It was purposefully left Keyboard and Guitar with no bass.

I am not satisfied with my recorded bass lines. Next post will be how to record a bassline.
 

Attachments

  • song1231a.mp3
    595.9 KB · Views: 25
Last edited:
I never mic up the PA speaker unless there is no other way to record the vocals, I've done it a couple of times in the past where I had no control over or access to the PA system.

I've recorded an event in the summer over the last 7 years, and I provide the PA mixer, amp and mics. Another fellow provides the speakers. I simply run a line out from a submix to the recorder. One year I had to tie into a QSC Touchmix. It worked, but the reverb was picked up in the signal which wasn't great for the recording.

Normalization shouldn't really affect the sound of the track, it just makes it easier to work with the track, especially if you're doing much cut and paste editing. You're just applying gain prior to doing the mix, so you really don't even affect the noise floor.

It looks like some of the tracks in your post have higher than 0dB on the wave. If you zoom in on the bottom track at the 8.1 min mark, is the peak >0?
 
Yes, but I don't know why. The normalization process makes it big end to end on the track. Want a picture of the unprocessed/unnormalized?

Yes normalized it is much louder so that is a sound change. Anybody know where the limits or adjustments are for Normalization in reaper?

Also if I increase the volume level of the drums I get an ambient echo sound from them. No clue how to stop that either. Using addctive drummer. I try to turn down all the room, ambi, compressor, etc type of sliders. Im trying to get dry flat drums.


Annotation 2019-12-30 191118.jpg
 
There is an add-in called the SWS extensions. SWS / S&M Extension In that package there are several normalization options, such as normalize to =23lufs. One called Xenakios/SWS loudness to dB level will let you specify the target max level.

I've never used addictive drummer, so I can't comment on that.
 
When you are normalizing a track to a higher lufs, does your track get louder? Mine does.

If you were using drum software and as it is turned up , they sound echo'd, what would you do? Where would you look?

The option I am considering is to use the drum section of my Fantom Keyboard. Then record it as a wave into Reaper. I might try that.

If I record with the Apollo USB and then later render without it, would that cause the problem? I know the tracks are already recorded, but making adjustments later with ASIO4ALL, when I am at another location without the Apollo. Changing ASIOs might do something.
 
Last edited:
Normalizing to a higher LUFS (ie going from -28 to -18) is an increase of 10, so yeah, it would be louder. If you have a track that is at -12LUFS and normalize to -23, then it should be lower.

Again, on the drum software, I can't really comment. Havent used that drum system. I'm guessing there's an echo setting somewhere, possibly gated?

Using the Fantom to generate the drum tracks as waves is perfectly fine. My first recordings with my SR18 were generated that way. I had patterns that I "played" and ran the audio out to my Yamaha AW16G. I never really got the Alesis to work with midi, I didn't have the time or the inclination to explore it back then. I also found that I sucked at programming drums.

It shouldn't matter if you are mixing on a different system, as long as you aren't using any of the internal Apollo plugins. I have a main system downstairs for recording running from my Tascam interface. Upstairs, I have my Dell with email, browser, taxes, etc. It also has Reaper. I added a couple of JBL 305s to the regular Realtek internal audio and it works just fine. I've done mixes on this computer just because it was handy. In this case, I don't even have ASIO installed. The ASIO driver it the go-between for your computer and your audio interface.
 
When you are recording a bassline is there anything you do special to capture the power?

I want a thick octave like harmonic, from signal notes. Something strong.
 
Back
Top