Using the RMS

  • Thread starter Thread starter justharold
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justharold

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Please forgive my ignorance...(Hmmm, I seem to start a lot of posts that way...)

How can I take a song that I have recorded and match it (RMS to RMS) to a song off of a professionally mastered CD? I mean, I know how to scan the reference song and figure it's RMS, however how do I apply these findings to my song...and still raise the levels to 0dB?

Man, I hope this makes sense...

Harold
 
Your question is not quite clear, but I hope you want to increase the volume of your song like the pro CDs without clipping, right? You want the same RMS like them, is that right? Ok, it is not preset that does this, every song is different, so you have to compress and limit the amplitudes to achieve this RMS. Compression is very very important, so please read a lot of articles on compression and you will understand how the pro CDs have that much RMS.
 
OK, so then I should basically use the RMS as a guide then? That is, should I see to it that the RMS is pretty constant for all the songs on the album that I am putting together?

Thanks,
Harold
 
Like Jeyan said - Read, read, read, read up on.......

compression

and

limiting. ;)

You will also want to set your MASTER to peak at -6db to -3db.

spin
 
you can have a target or reference rms, nothing wrong with it, but my opinion is .......... do it in a way you like it, dont see others stuff and compare the properties of teh wave, someone else may have used a better compressor and got a smooth sound at high volume, you may get a little harsh sound at that point, then reduce your compression and get a smooth sound at a lower RMS. You know what I mean. you heard what SPINSTERWUN said - Read, read, read, read up on....... compression

and

limiting. It is not comlicated, it is just two phase, one is understanding it and the second is experiencing it.
 
I am and have been studying Bob Katz' book "Mastering Audio". Can you point me to anything else to read?

Thanks...
 
I would say that book IS the definitive book on mastering....
 
For an experiment you could try this. Watch a real time RMS/Peak meter (I don't know if your version of Soundforge (?) has one) while pushing your song into a mastering limiter.

Here's a couple of free tools if you have a VST adapter. I think you can string these together in Sound Forge chainer (are you using SF ?).

Elemental Audio RTA spectrum w/RMS/Peak meter:
http://elementalaudio.com/products/inspector/index.html

Classis Mastering Limiter:
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-master-limiter.php

The meter will let you watch while various sections of a song play (into, verse, chorus, solo) so you can watch the rms level of your reference material and compare it with your own song. You can note the rms-to-peak headroom as well as the peak-to-0dBfs full scale headroom.

The mastering limiter is probably the easiest way to adjust loudness (EQ works too and is a great skill to pick up) which involves the limiter decreasing the rms-to-peak 'headroom' as well as bringing up the overall volume. You can generally push into a mastering limiter (called mastering because it is placed across the stereo buss of the mixer) about 5db or 6dB before you begin to 'hear' it.

Don't be afraid to make some extreme settings for your songs then make CD copies and play them in your car and other stereos along with reference CD's and the radio. Then you'll soon (takes a little time!) settle in to making some great 'loudness' adjustments once you're used to the sound of limiter artifacts and how to prevent them (by not pushing into the mastering limiter too hard).

Happy Loudness adjusting !
kylen
 
Would you like some links to a few websites, justharold?

spin
 
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