different volumes of recorded tracks in cubase

tgstk2

tgstk2

New member
Hi folks,

I have a blonde question.
I now my way around cubase, got my VST's and i'm a happy cubase camper.

But I have this flaw in my skills and there are probalby 1000's of plugins which can fix it but i dont know what it's called ....
so my problem is as this.

i record my guitars but it sometimes occur that for whatever reason i record with different levels.
which turns out some parts of a guitar track have total different volumes. where it should be leveled at the same volume.
now i know you can use automation to fix that manually , but i'm pretty sure there are VST's which just detect that stuff and wihch can make a nice average of the track.
would somelike lke izotope rx3 or insight do this ?
I want to make sure all my guitar parts within a track have the same volume.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
 
tgstk2 said:
... i record my guitars but it sometimes occur that for whatever reason i record with different levels.
which turns out some parts of a guitar track have total different volumes. where it should be leveled at the same volume.
now i know you can use automation to fix that manually , but i'm pretty sure there are VST's which just detect that stuff and wihch can make a nice average of the track.would somelike lke izotope rx3 or insight do this ?
I want to make sure all my guitar parts within a track have the same volume.

Any advise would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Maybe, kinda sort'a. But.. the useual suspect have serious downsides. I.e. a slow compressor - or one of those 'Voc Rider plugs. **
But really, the best is simply get up to seed on track automation, or better yet clip automation (is that what they call the individual punchs' in C'base?
In Sonar they're called 'clips and doing the gains there can be better and might be easier to boot;
1) you plop in the gain line and it only goes to the problem clip (area) in question,
2) once you drop them in you just listen to them for how they sit and how you like the level rather than
3) playing around with some 'auto leveling' **
4) rather than doing it on the track level, this puts your gain adjustment before any track insert later (like a compressor) where [an uncorrected] pre-insert 'clip level will mess with that.

**
a) you don't want or need some auto-gain plug messing with your levels while you mix, nor 'hunting and leveling stuff- the most of which probably is at what you will pick as the norm' level.
b) You probably just need to bring a relatively few 'hot sections down, 'cool ones up a bit.

Another example- If you have a track or mix with a low spot in it, the best way to 'even it out' is to raise that section - not compress the rest of it.
 
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thank you so much for taking the time for such helpfull reply!
thank you for the advice, i'll try to get it fixed using this :-)
 
In Cubase, each piece of audio has a volume bar. Just go through the track and adjust the volume bar on each piece of audio until they all match.

Obviously, the best way around all of this is to check your recording levels before you press record. Always have your amp at the same volume. (a piece of masking tape and a pen can mark the knobs on the amp) Then, decide what recording level you want everything to be at and make sure you are hitting that level before you start recording.

I know that inspiration strikes and you don't want to deal with technical things at that time, but if you get a method down, it will become second nature and not get in the way of your creativity.
 
Other than the obvious "you shoulda done this" there's another way and I use it myself. Simply keep the differently recorded parts on a different track and adjust your volumes to match track to track. No automation needed. If you have too many different parts to do this, you should start over.
 
On the individual "Parts" (Cubase term) themselves, you can increase or decrease the volume. Hover over the center of the part and grab the little white box that appears and raise or lower it. No need for plugs.
 
'Normalize, then gain adjust down..? How about apply gain to where you need it to land? I use Sonar's pre' trim fader to dial in and find that spot, zero it out then apply that gain. ('trim fader resides back at 'zero for subsequent uses.

I would find automation (pre and/or post fader as needed,) way easier -and, way more flexible down stream when you get to the other changes that you know are Shure to come later in the mix.. than more tracks to deal with :)
 
You just need to set your recording levels properly, but even if you don't, you can always normalise the track if you really messed up - but it isn't that hard to make sure the meters are in the right ballpark - they're all over the place, AND you can see the waveform as it gets recorded, so you should know before you get very far.

Personally, as long as I have a sufficient level, I don't waste too much time squeezing the maximum, because one bit of distortion is a problem I'd have more issues with. I often (as in today's project) end up with all sorts of level differences, and you just sort them. I can't imagine reaching for plug ins to sort a basic technique issue.
 
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