RMS normalization??

[rockabilly1955]

does anybody know of any cheap program or plugin that has an RMS Normalization feature?? like if i wanted the track to be at -15 rms, i would just set the level to that and thats it?? when i use regular compression it takes a lot longer thatn i would like, with all the tweaking and stuff

 

[mixsit]

Don't know, there may be. What's the goal ..quick and all the same loudness?
Wayne

 

[Minion]

I know many DAW"s have RMS Normalization so maybe switch Recording programs to one that has this Feature....

The one I use that has this feature is "Mackie Traction 2.1"....

Cheers

 

[ecktronic]

You want a brickwall limiter.

L2 is a good one but pricey. Cubase has 1 you get with the programme. Think its called Clipper or something like that.

Eck

 

[ofajen]

does anybody know of any cheap program or plugin that has an RMS Normalization feature?? like if i wanted the track to be at -15 rms, i would just set the level to that and thats it?? when i use regular compression it takes a lot longer thatn i would like, with all the tweaking and stuff

I'd like to hear one of the mastering guys weigh in on this. I doubt that RMS normalization produces appropriate and consistent loudness between tracks, but I know it adds another round of mathematical calculations and errors to your tracks. I think you'd have better success moving to a calibrated monitoring system, assuming you don't already work that way, for which you might buy a SPL meter, download a calibrated pink noise file and perhaps Roger Nichols' free version of Inspector, which is a plug in with a dual peak/averaging meter, and, ideally, install a stepped attenuator for setting your monitoring levels.

Cheers,

Otto

 

[Farview]

Sound forge has this. The problem comes when the peaks excede zero, the compression they employ sounds bad on everything I've tried it on.

Another problem you will run into is when you are trying to match very dynamic songs with not-so-dynamic songs. The dynamic songs will be destroyed to get the same average volume as the others.

It really is best to use a limiter and fool with it yourself. It doesn't take all that much time when you use the proper tools.

 

[rockabilly1955]

thanks for the tips. I think i'll stick with using compression and limiting. Ive been using Voxengo's Span Rms meter and i notice alot of commercial cd's register alot of clip instances, yet the overall product sounds good and never goes over 0bd. I try to get my final mixes at around -15rms and peak rms around -8 or so. Should final songs even have any clip instances??

 

[Farview]

Final mixes shouldn't clip, that doesn't mean that some of them don't.

Here's the thing, you can't go over 0db. So, really the only way the meter can tell if it is clipped is if it has so many full scale samples in a row (like 3 or 6) Different meters turn on the clip light for different reasons because there is no standard.

What type of music are you trying to get to peak at -8? Some mixes just can't get that loud, some mixes are that loud without a lot of mastering. It all depends.

 

[dgatwood]

You could just run my "pow" plug-in and set the value to 0.5 or so.

(For those who don't get the joke, my "pow" plug-in takes input value x and returns the value (x to the k) for positive x, -(abs(x) to the k) for negative x. So 0.5 means take the +/- square root of the input signal. It sounds pretty horrible outside the range 0.96 - 1.04.... Some would say it sounds pretty horrible at any value other than 1.... )

 

[superspit]

You could just run my "pow" plug-in and set the value to 0.5 or so.

(For those who don't get the joke, my "pow" plug-in takes input value x and returns the value (x to the k) for positive x, -(abs(x) to the k) for negative x. So 0.5 means take the +/- square root of the input signal. It sounds pretty horrible outside the range 0.96 - 1.04.... Some would say it sounds pretty horrible at any value other than 1.... )

ha!...that's kookey!!