wanted:equally noisy songs

  • Thread starter Thread starter cardiff jon
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cardiff jon

cardiff jon

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Does anyone have any tips as to how to get the volumes of different songs at the same level when putting several tracks on a CD? nb I've got an MR8, n-track (which I still haven't worked out) and a Nero burning rom.
 
Find a copy of MP3 Gain (free PC program). It analyzes songs and then lets you choose a dB value to normalize the songs to.
 
Thanks, Dexter - that works great. I thought converting to mp3s was supposed to degrade tracks, but I can't tell any difference. Is there something wrong with my ears?
 
I thought so too but, by converting to high bitrates, the sound basically isn't affected very much at all (and the file size isn't either) but it allows for great work in this program and the ability to distribute online.

Good luck :)
 
If you like converting to MP3 keep using what was already suggested, but it does degrade the sound. I can really hear the difference with my reference monitors. Anyway, I use a feature on Goldwave (wave editor www.goldwave.com). It has a maximize setting that before it actually maximizes it scans the file to let you know what the RMS is. When I finish a project I then open the songs in Goldwave and run the scan on each one till I find the loudest then increase the others to be equal. It worked quite well.
 
I also agree, mp3 conversion degrades the sound. What I do is compress my final mix and then hard limit it. This has the effect of making the track very loud, just like a pro mix.
You can also normalize in N-track. You might want to check the manual on that one Jon. In fact, if any of you guys have problems sleeping, take the n-track manual to bed with you and read for a bit. You'll be fast asleep in no time, and you also learn some useful tricks. :p
 
morindae said:
I also agree, mp3 conversion degrades the sound. What I do is compress my final mix and then hard limit it. This has the effect of making the track very loud, just like a pro mix.
You can also normalize in N-track. You might want to check the manual on that one Jon. In fact, if any of you guys have problems sleeping, take the n-track manual to bed with you and read for a bit. You'll be fast asleep in no time, and you also learn some useful tricks. :p
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What kind of limiter are you using?
 
Gospel, I have Cool Edit Pro, which I use for a lot of my compressing and limiting.
 
try converting a file with a lot of reverb or chorus or phase shifting in it and a lot of cymbal and high freqs, I notice it then. but then if i use a higher rate, it's better, but it's a rare track that has all that stuff.
 
glynb said:
Cardiff Jon, greetings from Blackpool!

Hi, Glynb! Love your tower - seen our stadium?

Thanks to all for advice. As I said, the MP3 thing did work, but I can hear the difference now. I also used the wave editor, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be equalizing. The results don't seem equal. To be honest, I don't actually know what compression is, except I've heard it's what makes adverts sound louder than programmes when they apparently aren't.
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I couldn't get your www link to work.

How is Wales? Why are they always trying to save the Wales? Is somthing wrong over there? Is it plural for having more than one Wale? What is a Wale? I'm not Andy Rooney. Why do I hear his voice as I ask these questions? Just curious.
 
Saving?

We gave up on saving anything a while back.

These days the only thing we are interested in saving is MONEY!
 
Speak for yourself, Blackpool!
Funny, but when I first arrived in Wales I was puzzled for years by graffitti on a bridge saying WALES ARE PUBLIC. One day it dawned on me: WALES A REPUBLIC. Unfortunately still untrue.
Is anyone going to answer my last question?
 
Question?

Which question is that?
No, I haven't seen your stadium!

I thought all the others have been answered one way or another?

All I can say about compression is I have an 'idiot' sheet of suggested settings from the net and I use those compression settings on each instrument as a starting point. If it still sounds bad i start tweaking the knobs a bit, but usualy they sound OK to my ears.
 
Just a suggestion....

Can I suggest everyone posting here pick up a copy of Bob Katz' "Mastering Audio: The Art and The Science".... sure, there's a lot of info there that applies to pros, but you can glean a lot of techniques and even basic understanding and apply it to your own situations.

And I suspect if you do this, there'll be a lot of deleted posts in this thread....!
 
morindae said:
LOL. Hey Bluebear, which ones would you delete. :)
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Any of them mentioning "normalizing" ( a process never used in "mastering") and questions on whether MP3s degrade the sound (they definitely do)....

Normalizing operates on PEAK levels - applying a mathematical increase/decrease in level. This doesn't corelate at all to the apparent loudness of a track (which is a function of the relative frequency spectrum in a track). It is apparent loudenss that needs to be adjusted to provide level changes and the normalizing process cannot do this, it simply adds gain based on relative peak levels only. In addition, applying this step increases the noise floor and adds another "digital generation" to the signal, further degrading the sound.
 
Yes, thanks, I'll just go and unnormalise the tracks I've normalised. I thought the loud ones still sounded louder.
 
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