When to normalize?

L

lkmuller

New member
I have a question for anppilot or any other pro engineers out there: After converting all of the midi tracks into audio, do then normalize each track individually, or just normalize the final mix? Or would you normalize certain tracks that were weak, and leave others alone?

Thanks in advance,

Lee
http://leemuller.iuma.com
 
First a question for you..what is a "anppilot"?

Don't use the normalize (if at all) until the end process of your masterd mix.

You will find if you use the search button many post's as to why not to use it.
You will read about peak level and average level and other Potential problems.

If you dont find your answer in the search I will reply with a full discription.

Your tracks should be recorded so that you should not have to use the normalize at all. A weak track should be solved in the recording process.
 
Thanks for the quick reply! What you say makes sense....I guess I just needed to hear it from somebody who knows what they're doing. Thanks again. By the way, Anppilot is the name of somebody who had a post earlier about converting all the midi tracks into audio. Oh well.

Lee
 
First of all, what is a "Shailat"?

Second of all, "anppilot" What is it?
Obviously you dont know anything about aviation. But thats ok, not everyone is, well, perfect...just kidding. "A&P" is a FAA issued license for Aviation Maintenance Technicians. The "A" is for Airframe which is everything on the aircraft except the engines. "P" is for PowerPlant which is the engines minus everything else on the aircraft. They are two seperate licenses. You must pass over 180 test in school, then pass 3 oral tests, 3 intense written tests, 3 practical (hands on) tests to get licenses from the FAA. Also, I am a pilot. Hope that explains my name.

I own a recording studio in my part time. I am not always home to answer this bulleten board. So sorry for the slow reply.

Now on to important stuff.
I try NOT to normalize anything, until near the very end when Im ready to master (and if I absolutely have to). I've seen too many times noise get introduced into a mix. I make sure that my input levels are high enough when Im recording so I dont have to Normalize anything. Also you can use "Loudness Maximizer". Its a free plug-in thas on the internet. That will boost your signal per track and not introduce any extra noise.
I hope this has helped you, and sorry again for not being able to answer as fast as others.


[Edited by anppilot on 12-11-2000 at 17:30]
 
Hello anppilot!

OK, I'm enlightened about your handle. :-)

Thanks for the reply. I've heard about the loudness maximizer but never really knew what it was for. I'm assuming that you would use it towards the end of the process also?

From what I'm hearing both from you and Shailat, though, I guess loudness maximizing or "normalizing" really shouldn't be done unless it is absolutely necessary. Hmmm....this too, makes sense.

Thank you so much for the reply. Any pearls of wisdom are welcomed by an amateur like me.

Aloha,

Lee
http://leemuller.iuma.com
 
Im serious when I say, dont use it unless you have to. It boosts up the volume of everything and has a tendency to boost distortion, background noise, clipping, all the things you dont want to hear. Let your recording "almost peak". Digital audio is different than analog. With analog "let the needle just hit the red", thats NOT the same case with digital. But yes it is ...well, almost. I record as loud as I can without "clipping" in digital terms, thats hitting "0" on the spectrum. Past "0" makes an a very undesired, unpleasent loud "pop" sound. I usually keep it around 4-5 dB. Then what volume I cant get from that level, Ill use the "loudness Maximizer."

I've probably off the type of my head have made over 200 recordings, just on Cubase VST alone, and 300-400 total, including analog recordings.

It also has to do with the way you get your signal into your sound card. For example, heres a list of the equipment youll find at my studio Crystal Blue Productions:

COMPUTER:
1st Computer: Pentium-3 500,256 Meg RAM,7200RPM 4.3G UIDE HD
7200RPM 4.5 SCSI HD, 4 Meg Video,
D-Man PCI Audio card, 17" Gateway Monitor

2nd Computer: AMD K6 3-450, 192 Meg RAM, 16 MEG V00D00 3d
Video Card, 4 Meg video capture Card
(for video editing), 12X CD ROM,
Memorex4X4X20 CDR/RW, 17" Voxon SVGA Monitor

SOFTWARE:
Cubase VST 3.71r2
Soundiver
Steinbergs Clean
Steinbergs Recycle
Acid
Soundforge

STUDIO EQUIPMENT:
Sony 4x4x20 CD-R/RW
Fisher Dual Cassette (Mixdown Deck)
Sony Stereo Mic
Tascam TM-D1000 16 Channel Dig Mixer (vocals mostly)
Event 20/20 Nearfield Monitors
Haffler 50W/Channel Amp
Unitor8 MIDI patch bay
Alesis 32 Band Graphic steeo EQ
Alesis Nano Compressor
Mackie 1202 (For Mixing Modules, Keyboards and samplers)
Roland S-330 Sampler (W/External Video mon.and Rem.control)
Roland JV-1080 (Dance card,Tekno card, 2100 other patches)
Roland D-110 Sound Module
Roland U-110 Sound Module
Akai s2800 Sampler
Yamaha TX81Z Sound Module
Yamaha FB-01 Sound Module
Alesis DM5 Drum Module
Roland JW-50 as a Master Controller

If you have any questions, post a message here or Email me at Downtownsounds@aol.com
 
Hey, thanks a million anppilot!

Hmmmmm....I'm starting to rethink my process through. Your advice really makes sense to me - I need to make some big time changes in the way I record my guitar. You know, I've spent a major part of my life learning how to play the guitar, and now I'm going to spend the rest of it learning how to record my guitar. That's going to be the fun part, though - doing something new, learning something.

Thanks again,

Lee Muller
http://leemuller.iuma.com

By the way, I WILL ask you more questions as time goes by!
 
Guitar.....guitar you say???

Now were talking Goose eggs, not chicken eggs.
Keyboards, and anything with lineout signals are generally easy to record. Guitars, mics, acoustic pianos, are WAAaaaaaayy more tricky to record. Now your talking about instruments and mics that dont have a pre-amp built into them. The voltage on a synth or drum machine is astronomically higher than a mic or guitar. Its like an aftermarket stereo in a car.
It has "amplified" outputs, and "line level" outputs. If you hook a speaker up to the "speaker" outs, there is enough power to DRIVE the speaker, and you will hear SOUND. Hook the speaker up to the "line level" outputs (which is an RCA connection and wouldnt make much sense doing so) but anyway, and you will barely hear anything, if anything at all. The reason you ask? "Speaker" outputs are amplified, "line level" outputs ARE NOT. What should you do so you can hear speakers, and subwoofers when using "line level" ouputs? You hook your RCA (line level) outputs up to an AMPLIFIER. That takes that LOW LEVEL signal, and AMPLIFIES it. Same thing with guitars with VERY LOW level outputs verses keyboards with a MUCH higher level output. When I use to install car stereo systems, I used to tell my customers, dont go for the "cheap" amps, go for the more expensive amps. The reason, more expensive amps are CLEANER.....period. They use MOSFET transistors instead of basic TRANSISTORS. MOSFET transistors dont NEARLY put out that much distortion as the other, cheaper transistors. But enough about the hightech crap, (im a aircraft electronics tech) so I get carried away.
The point im trying to make is, I dont know how you are getting your signal of your guitar. By the way, are you recording an acoustic guitar or electric? You sould use a PreAmp, or a really GOOD mixing board with a built in PreAmp. I use my Tascam TM-D1000 preamps for vocals with mics, and my Mackie 1202 PreAmps for guitars. Am I losing you?
Bottom line: the cleaner the signal you get onto your recording, the cleaner it will sound on play back.

Any other questions, just ask me here, or email me at:
DowntownSounds@aol.com

Later,
Mike
 
Howzit Mike,

Hehehe...I thought you knew I was recording my guitar. You mean it's more complicated than I thought? Auuugh!

Anyhow, I'm recording a Takamine HR5 classical. I'm plugging straight into a Roland UA100 which is hooked up to my computer through the USB port. The rest of my "band" is midi. I'm recording everything in Cubase. If you ever have a few minutes, would you do me a favor and maybe listen to something I've recorded? The site is http://leemuller.iuma.com , and I have 7 tunes there that I recorded in my patio. "Europa" has a pretty good mix, but the one's I've had problems with are "watch What Happens" and "Bossa for Andy". Your advice would be greatly appreciated. If the MP3 download is junk, let me know and I'll send you a CD.

Thanks for the advice, it is GREATLY appreciated.

Lee
http://leemuller.iuma.com
 
I'll definately check your site out and let you know.

Talk about busy? The computer here at the airport wont let me retrieve Mp3's.

Catch you later.

Mike
 
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