Editing methods

D

Dig

New member
I have a quick question that may be very simplistic to many of you but since I am fairly new at the editing stuff I am hoping to learn a bit more as I go along.

After mixing down a file in CEP 2 what steps do you do first?

In other words should I
1.) Normalize
2.) EQ
3.) Amplify
4.) Compress

- Does it matter?
- Obviously I may not have to all of these things but if I did is there a better order to do them?

Thanks for the help!
 
hey dig
first of all, do you REALLY need to do that? its not by law that you have to do all things. anyway if you think that drums may need a little compression or maybe that guitar solo should be a little amplified in order to get that sound you want....well thats another thing

if you are going to edit audio, why dont you edit BEFORE mixing down? its almos impossible to fix something when it has been mixed down with everything else

or are you talking about mastering???

Memo
 
oh, and if i had to i'd go this way
1.- compress
2.- eq
3.- amplify
4.- normalize

or i dont know...it really depends in how it sounds and how do you WANT it to sound
 
Ok maybe I need to be a little more specific for this one project.

I recorded a concert that was all guitars. 6 guitar players. All using amps except for one that was strictly acoustic. I setup two mics in front of the group.

Fortunatley the sound came out quite well. You can hear all the players very distincly. So I took it off my recorder as 2 wavs, left and right and put it in CEP. Now it is a solid 11/2 hours of music with clapping in between each song.

I mixed it down and cut it in half, burned a cd for one of the halfs and played it on a few different systems to get an idea of the sound.

Overall it was a little to quiet as I had to turn the volume up no matter what system I played it on. Also I noticed it was a bit boomy. They dynamic range is quite extreme as it goes from 6 guitars playing at once to an acoustic solo and all in between.
Some of the wave forms exceed 0 DB on the vertical scale, which tend to sound a little distorded.

So my question is how do I bring the clips below 0 DB, get rid of the boomyness, not sacrifice the dynamic range, and raise the volume, to make it a perfect cd :-)?

Thanks
 
"how do I bring the clips below 0 DB"
normalize to 98%
"get rid of the boomyness"
eq, cut som low frequencies a little
"raise the volume"
amplify the areas that cant be totally heard

hope this helps
memo
 
Actually, if you have clipping...

...i.e. parts of the file above (or cut off by) 0dB, then normalizing to 98% will only lower the volume of a clipped distorted sound.

If you show clipped parts of the file and have not processed yet, than that can only mean that you did the clipping while dumping the recorder into CEP.
Once its clipped, theres nothing you can do to un-clip it.

Your best bet is to run the recorded tracks (are you using a DAT?) through an outboard limiter on the way into the computer.

What kind of converters/soundcard are you using?????

If your recording in at 24 bits, you really don't have to peg the meters, you could record at -6 (max) to -12 and be fine. The signal to noise ratio that matters has already been committed to tape (or whatever recording deck you're using) when you recorded the performance, so your not really going to gain much by pushing the meters in CEP at the risk of a peak clipping the sound.

You can always turn it up after its safely in the computer without ANY clipping.

If each of the mics recorded well and are fairly balanced, than I would send the tracks out through a stereo buss and process across the whole buss so as not to unbalance the mix.

Also experiment with the order of things as to EQ before or after compression.
I might try and EQ the boominess out 1st and then compress a little to tighten it up.

Then strap a limiter across the buss and turn the volume up if you need to.

You really dont need to normalize at all....thats what a fader is for.

But regardless, you have to re-record the tracks into the computer so ther is NO clipping. Digital does not forgive. 0dB is absolute.

-mike
 
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Wow formerlyfzfile, this al sounds like great information and I wish I knew half of what you are talking about. But let me give you some more info.

I recorded the concert using a Fostex VF160 that somebody lent me. I saved the 2 tracks as seperate wav files on 2 seperate cds then just copied them into my computer.

Unfortunately I could not monitor the 160 while recording as I had a number of other duties to perform during the event so it is possible that the music may have gone over 0 DB during the event.

I assume if this is the case then there is nothing I can do about it. But this leads me to a question I have asked before and still don't understand.

If Normalizing will not help then what is its purpose? Maybe you can help me understand when I would use it. Under what circumstances?

I have a Delta 44 in my computer that I think I finally got to the point where it doesn't add clicks and pops.

You say: "Then strap a limiter across the buss " Although this sounds very exciting I am not sure what you mean. I know what a limiter is but you "strap across the buss", not sure.

Thanks for the info and if there is any more help you can provide with the info I have outlined I would be greatly appreciative.
 
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