Volume

[Benjamin619]

I'm trying to put a few tracks to CD, but there are obvious and subtle differences in volume between the tracks. I don't want my friends to have to reach for the volume every song and I don't want to either. Is this a job for compression, or what? Any tips would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Monkey Allen]

Some people would say to 'normalise', which I think equalizes the levels of the tracks. Other people would say to leave them as they are because any tweaking of this sort at this stage is going to ruin the recordings. Other people would say that you really need to get the levels right at stage one. I bet you've heard that before.

I think what I would do is find the loudest track and use a wav editor to bring the other tracks of a similar nature up to roughly its volume and then do the same for quieter tracks and so on.

At the end of the day you are fixing a problem that you ideally shgouldn't have. I bet you've heard that too.

You could try free software like Audacity to alter volumes. Or other stuff like that.

 

[BadAE]

If you use Nero to burn your cd you have the option to 'normalized' the level and the vol will be the average of all the tracks. No harm trying, if it turn bad throw it away.

 

[dwillis45]

The ultimate solution is to have all the tracks mastered. If you don't have the budget for that, you might try a good stereo compressor or plugin to increase the volume of the low volume tracks. Or just lower the volume of the loud tracks without compression. It really depends what you are trying to achieve: consistency or volumes that compare with commercial CDs.

I wouldn't suggest normalization, however.

 

[FALKEN]

good question..


what is your setup? PC? analog? you surely have a way of adjusting each tracks volume... either by normalizing, or by dubbing the songs at different volumes through a mixer, be it software or live...

 

[MONKEY!]

Nothing wrong with normalizing

 

[Benjamin619]

s-u-c-c-e-s-s

Yeah, I worked it out. And first, thanks for the help everyone! It always makes for an interesting read.

I record on PC, and I ended up just turning the loud ones down a bit. It's so strange though, all of the tracks will be coming up about the same on the Master, then render them and they sound like different volumes! Oh, the mysteries of home recording...

I'm just making demos, for fun. I know if I ever want a mastered sound, I'm going to have to buy some studio-time. Thanks again all.

 

[Massive Master]

Peak volume has little to do with loudness - Which is why normalizing is generally a lost cause.