'Normalizing' individual tracks in cubase

[clivus]

clivus, if that stuff sounds cool, then cool! high tech is our friend except
when it isn't. my stuff has never done what I want it to, which is to sound
good right out of the box.

The presets on most effects units i have tried are over the top. I usually back off the effect levels to get what I want. The Micro Cube I use does not have presets, so it is easy to dial up the desired effect. I have never had anyone auditioning my stuff 'bust' me for using modellers rather than miking up a rig.

 

[billy3000]

just a wild guess here Clivus

The presets on most effects units i have tried are over the top. I usually back off the effect levels to get what I want. The Micro Cube I use does not have presets, so it is easy to dial up the desired effect. I have never had anyone auditioning my stuff 'bust' me for using modellers rather than miking up a rig.

the model you have is no longer in production right?

I'll see if I can find that rascal

the old gsp21pro set the benchmasrk for 'over the bloody top' but the stuff
CAN be dialed back. a lot of it is crummy. but some is ok.

is that all I look for is Micro Cube?

 

[billy3000]

micro cube

The presets on most effects units i have tried are over the top. I usually back off the effect levels to get what I want. The Micro Cube I use does not have presets, so it is easy to dial up the desired effect. I have never had anyone auditioning my stuff 'bust' me for using modellers rather than miking up a rig.

$129.00 everywhere I looked. good news that!

 

[clivus]

Billy--The Korg multi effect pedal I like is an AX30G. I use it on electric guitar and pedal steel in one of the bands I play in directly into the board-no amp-both for recording and playing live. The internal guitar effects on the Boss BR1600 recorder are also good and probably available in a pedal, but I don't know which one(s) they would be. Most guitarists I see have pedal boards with several individual stomp boxes on them. Just depends on what sounds good to you.

 

[clivus]

Billy-I reread the post RE using a level meter while playing live. Probably would be useful but I have found that listening to the full mix and letting my ears guide me is the best way for me to set rhythm and solo levels. The AX30G lets me access 4 patches at a time so I will set up a clean rhythm and clean solo patches, and overdrive rhythm and overdrive solo patches.

 

[billy3000]

level meters. NOT!

Billy-I reread the post RE using a level meter while playing live. Probably would be useful but I have found that listening to the full mix and letting my ears guide me is the best way for me to set rhythm and solo levels. The AX30G lets me access 4 patches at a time so I will set up a clean rhythm and clean solo patches, and overdrive rhythm and overdrive solo patches.

yeah, boulder sound guy said that too. I agree with you guys. my
'home studio' is so caveman it's amazing I have done anything.

playing live and hearing everything live is different. I never really
have an issue with my own sound or levels. I'm the first one to get blasted
by my speaker cab, so i kinda know what's what.

the songs I have been working on with my buds are weird. first, I get
them via email as mp3 pro's and everything but ME is already on there and
mixed. no guitars at all.

and the one fella said "do like a pete townsend going into the chorus"
so I did. guess I didn't know my own strengh

oops! no windmill arm flailing ala pete townsend, but the ideas came
across. and it was way way off from what I did during the verse.

amp was in another room with the mike, and I was using headphones
in my 'soundbooth room' I couldn't tell it was that loud cause of all the
vocals and everything that I can't isolate and turn down. it's a little
different, that's for sure. live and learn though.

I like when guys send the whole thing as wave files via pando or
some huge file server. then, I could tweak this and that.

it's a little weird.

money would be better spent on a cube or maybe one of those 5 watt
epiphone tube amp heads that are going around. exact same price as
a micro cube, but no speaker(s)

I'm convinced. no level meters for me

 

[billy3000]

Ax30g

Billy-I reread the post RE using a level meter while playing live. Probably would be useful but I have found that listening to the full mix and letting my ears guide me is the best way for me to set rhythm and solo levels. The AX30G lets me access 4 patches at a time so I will set up a clean rhythm and clean solo patches, and overdrive rhythm and overdrive solo patches.

looks like a nice pedal from what I can find. 50 to 100 bucks on ebay.
I guess the micro cube is a newer product. still can find them new for
$129.00

taking a break form tracking tonite. too hot here in phoenix. egad. only
middle of april and it's sweaty hot.

 

[nick_w79]

I have had a look at this thread and here is my twopenneth worth...

Compression - Reduces dynamic range... ie Makes the louder bits quieter then makes everything louder. I remember studying compression at college and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to learn but once it clicks it's quite easy. I find that I now almost visualise compression in terms of wave forms and envelopes.

Normalisation - Personally I would never use this in a mixing/recording situation as it just finds the highest peak in a piece of audio and finds how mush of an increase is needed to the level you give it (generally 0dB) and then increases the level of all the audio by that amount. That means all the noise, spill and other crap aswell. You should really improve the input signal into the recording system when tracking.

Limiting - Basically like normalisation but moves everything up above a certain level and then chops the top of (in a nice way). Good in mastering for giving that CD quality "Loudness" but I've never personally seen any use for it in the mixing process.

Hope this helps and hope I got it right! lol. It's been a long time since college! haha

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I have had a look at this thread and here is my twopenneth worth...

Compression - Reduces dynamic range... ie Makes the louder bits quieter then makes everything louder. I remember studying compression at college and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to learn but once it clicks it's quite easy. I find that I now almost visualise compression in terms of wave forms and envelopes.

Normalisation - Personally I would never use this in a mixing/recording situation as it just finds the highest peak in a piece of audio and finds how mush of an increase is needed to the level you give it (generally 0dB) and then increases the level of all the audio by that amount. That means all the noise, spill and other crap aswell. You should really improve the input signal into the recording system when tracking.

Limiting - Basically like normalisation but moves everything up above a certain level and then chops the top of (in a nice way). Good in mastering for giving that CD quality "Loudness" but I've never personally seen any use for it in the mixing process.

Hope this helps and hope I got it right! lol. It's been a long time since college! haha

Not quite.

Compression and limiting reduce signal levels. If you have a signal with a big initial transient and you set the attack slow enough to pass the transient while reducing the decay you may actually increase the dynamic range.

Normalization typically just applies gain to a signal to get it to some arbitrary level. Since the desired signal and the undesired noise are raised proportionately there is no change in S/N (assuming the initial analog noise floor is above the digital noise floor). In 24 bit audio, if the recording level is anywhere near correct normalization is probably pointless, and any process applied lowers the fidelity. Also, normalizing peaks to 0dBFS can lead to problems with mix bus overload or DAC clipping, depending on where in the path it's applied.

Limiting is not "basically like normalization". It is simply a very high ratio compressor. Peak limiting will essentially chop the peaks off. RMS limiting responds to the average level rather than the peak, so it doesn't chop off the peaks. Any makeup gain is optional and happens after the limiting.

 

[clivus]

I find normalizing useful if I have a track or a portion of one that needs to be louder, but I have recorded it at too low a level to get the gain stages in the DAW to give it enough boost. I think it is a great tool and I am surprised that the use of it seems to be controversial.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I find normalizing useful if I have a track or a portion of one that needs to be louder, but I have recorded it at too low a level to get the gain stages in the DAW to give it enough boost. I think it is a great tool and I am surprised that the use of it seems to be controversial.

It's not controversial, it's a fix for times when something doesn't get tracked properly. If you have to do it all the time you're doing something wrong. What is bad about it is when it's done for no good reason.

I used it just the other day on a part with a volume pedal that came in soft and the volume curve wasn't enough to get it where I wanted it. I had to do it, so I did. Of seven songs so far it's the only spot that it was needed.

 

[clivus]

I used it just the other day on a part with a volume pedal that came in soft and the volume curve wasn't enough to get it where I wanted it. I had to do it, so I did. Of seven songs so far it's the only spot that it was needed.

I got it. I agree it is not ideal to have to fix levels after tracking, but the bands I play in frequently record totally 'live', or with very few overdubs, and the tracking levels may differ from the ones that were set at the 'run thru'. Gotta fix it at mix time and normalizing frequently saves the day.

 

[nick_w79]

Not quite.

Compression and limiting reduce signal levels. If you have a signal with a big initial transient and you set the attack slow enough to pass the transient while reducing the decay you may actually increase the dynamic range.

Normalization typically just applies gain to a signal to get it to some arbitrary level. Since the desired signal and the undesired noise are raised proportionately there is no change in S/N (assuming the initial analog noise floor is above the digital noise floor). In 24 bit audio, if the recording level is anywhere near correct normalization is probably pointless, and any process applied lowers the fidelity. Also, normalizing peaks to 0dBFS can lead to problems with mix bus overload or DAC clipping, depending on where in the path it's applied.

Limiting is not "basically like normalization". It is simply a very high ratio compressor. Peak limiting will essentially chop the peaks off. RMS limiting responds to the average level rather than the peak, so it doesn't chop off the peaks. Any makeup gain is optional and happens after the limiting.

Ok, fair enough. That's put me in my place. I'll keep my mouth shut next time ;-)

 

[timtimtim]

Another method that works well in Cubase is to locate the part(s) of the track that are too hot (or soft) and use the 'split at cursor' edit to create edit points on either side of it. Then highlite that section and do a volume edit by placing the cursor on the small blue square that will appear in the middle of the section, hold down the left mouse button and and 'drag' the the cursor downward (or upward if desired). You will see the waveform get smaller (or larger) and the amount of volume change in dB will be shown.

Does this work in Cubase LE? I can't see any blue square. I know you can do it by selecting gain