Normalizing Audio Tracks

MC,

I almost never 'normalize' - for various reasons (though it can be useful in some circumstances).

The BBE Maximizer is not necessarily going to give you the 'loudness' you seem to want/need. And, frankly, it has some limitations imho.

However, I think what you're looking for would come from using plugins such as master limiters/compressors, and from using mastering software (such as Ozone).

But, it should be said, like anything else, using these tools takes a bit of skill and experience (and experimentation of course).

As a suggestion, I would start with something like the "Classic Master Limiter" (it's a free master limiter plugin, I just don't have the site URL handy at the moment or I would present that as well). Throw it on your master bus - just before the final hardware stage output. It comes with some presets. What it will immediatley do, however, is limit the output to -.2 below 0 (so there's SOME headroom left) and it will limit (which is a form of heavy compressions in simple terms) giving you the "loudness" you are looking for. Experiment and you'll see.

HOWEVER< limiters, compressors and ANY type of processing can be overused, or used improperly, or can take away some dymanics, and so on. So I always suggest using judiciously - unless the sound you're looking for is, in fact, 'to the wall'.

Enjoy.

ORIGINAL: IamUncleMikey

I just finished recording/producing a CD project for a friend. It was the 1st full project that I had done. When I mixed it down and put it on a CD it sounded fine. I normalized every final audio track before exporting it.
I made sure that I mixed the final track to the peak tolarances before distrotion. I was able to get the meters on my channel as well as my master buss and my soundcard buss to peak out at either 0.0 or 0.1. But when I play that CD followed by another CD, (Store Bought) then there is a substantial differnece in the volume between the two. I have to turn up the one I made quite a bit to get the same overall volume as the "regular" CD.
Even though I am using the BBE Sonic Maximizer plugin, I still feel the recording is "weak" compared to Professionally produced CD's.
I record in 24 Bit 96000 rate then export to 16 bit 44100.
Is there something else I can do to get more "GAIN" so my CD's will have the same volume as one purchased in a store?

MC

I downloaded the Classic Master Limiter.zip file. I extracted it to my program files/cakewalk/shared plugins folder. It didn't reconize it. So I copied it into my shared dxi folder. No luck. So I copied it into shared folder that I could think of. Still nothing. It doesen't seem to be able to find it. IS there something I'm doing wrong? I am running windows XP.

It might be a VST plugin(?).

It IS .

There is a post on the forum called 'loudness race' or something that explains this more fully.

yeah , it sux .. i hope this would reverse at some point .. maybe its one sign that its the end of the world...coming soon ..

one of the first articles about this (a good one ) :

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/articles/8A133F52D0FD71AB86256C2E005DAF1C

Mc,
One of the FIRST things I would recommend you NOT do is to start copying a bunch of files you download to a bunch of folders on your hard drive without knowing where they should go or why they should go there. That could cause more problems and make it much more difficult for you to figure out what happened when problems do happen.

Quick lesson: there are (basically) 2 primary types of plugins for Windows - one is a format called DXi and the other VSTi. You can do research on all this on your own, but for now just know that DXi type plugins usually have some install program which correctly registers them on a windows system without further need for the user to do so. VST format plugins need to be run through a VST Wrapper (also known as a VST Adapter in Cakewalk terminology) in order to be recognized by SONAR and other programs which are not written explicity to do so. Steinberg developed the VST format, Cakewalk developed the DXi format.

So if you have the VST Adapter for Sonar, you need to use that to 'wrap' any VST(i) plugins.

My suggestion to you for now is to learn what you can (do research) about all this so you can use the tools you want. But, you also may want to stick with only DXi format plugins for now until you're more comfortable with using all the various formats and tools.

Enjoy.

ORIGINAL: IamUncleMikey

I downloaded the Classic Master Limiter.zip file. I extracted it to my program files/cakewalk/shared plugins folder. It didn't reconize it. So I copied it into my shared dxi folder. No luck. So I copied it into shared folder that I could think of. Still nothing. It doesen't seem to be able to find it. IS there something I'm doing wrong? I am running windows XP.

I am thankful for everyone's advice. I have learned a ton just in the last 24 hours. I did finally put the file in the correct place. Since I have been doing a lot of 24 bit recording, It was using tons of my hard drive space. So I bought another hard drive as a dedicated "music" drive. I uninstalled Sonar from the "C" drive and reinstalled it to my "G" drive.
But for some reason, (probably a windows reason) sonar defaulted my VST Adapter to the "C" drive instead of my new "G" drive. After thinking that through, I put the file in the C drive VST folder and whola! Thanks to everyone for this discussion group!

Personally, I would have ketp Sonar and other 'apps' on the C: drive, and use the new (hopefully big) hard drive for all your projects, audio, etc.

Also, you'll want to create a folder on your main drive called something like VSTPLUGINS and put all your vst stuff there. That way you only have to "point" the VST adapter to one folder and it will scan anything in that folder plus subfolders below it.

ORIGINAL: IamUncleMikey

I am thankful for everyone's advice. I have learned a ton just in the last 24 hours. I did finally put the file in the correct place. Since I have been doing a lot of 24 bit recording, It was using tons of my hard drive space. So I bought another hard drive as a dedicated "music" drive. I uninstalled Sonar from the "C" drive and reinstalled it to my "G" drive.
But for some reason, (probably a windows reason) sonar defaulted my VST Adapter to the "C" drive instead of my new "G" drive. After thinking that through, I put the file in the C drive VST folder and whola! Thanks to everyone for this discussion group!

There is a serious reason not to normalize. Once a track is normalized, you can no longer destructive apply effects to it without almost certainly clipping the track permanently. Why - because there is not even one bit of headroom left in the track.

In Sonar, you can't choose what to normalize to. Some other apps allow it. Also in Sonar, normalizing is always a destructive edit, which makes normalizing in Sonar, usually a bad idea. That said, I wouldn't say that one should never normalize anything.

ORIGINAL: daverich

Forget about normalize,- if you need to normalize then you need to re-record your audio and check your levels better.

Of course, if you've managed to record Michael jaskon in the next room confessing then you can use a compressor and a gate/noise reduction software or an expander.

Kind regards

Dave Rich.

Normalizing is good when you import an audio file that was recorded with low levels, or too wide of a dynamic range for a comp/limit to be used. If you know what you're doing, normalizing is a very handy tool--although I never use it on an entire mix.

IMO--

Stephen

I have not got into plugin yet. Is plugin a general term?
Is anything that can be applied to a wave form is called a plugin?
are Chorus/Reverb/Delay plugins? Thanks.

Can anyone explain to me what is dynamic range? is it a distance from the lowest point to the highest point of a wave form?

I could not see a track that is a mix of all other tracks in SONAR. Does mixing simply add all tracks together applying nondestructive FX? If this is the case, the mix must come to distortion(above 0db) ?

Thanks

A plugin is basically an addon, application that can be loaded into a host such as Sonar and perform various functions - which can be almost anything: FX (delays, echos, whatever) of SoftSynths, and so on.
Sonar comes wth a bunch of plugins already. There are DXi and VSTi plugins (different formats) that Sonar can host.


Dynamic range is basically the range of level over the entire audio spectrum. FOr example, in a typical classical music piece, there will be a wide/large dynamic range - meaning there will be many low level (softer) moments and many high level (louder) moments. In a lot of 'commercial' music, there has been a tendency to keep the dynamic range limited - meaning it sounds as if every moment is as loud as it can be. In other words a small dynamic range. A wide dymanic range will have low and high peaks. This is not a technical explanation, but I hope you get the concept.

Mixing is basically when you put all the separate elements in a project together to form a stereo (or other type) of 'final' composite - including any FX or other processing (EQ, compression, and so forth). For example, if you want to create an MP3 of your project, you would mix down to a stereo track and then export that to an MP3 format using either the Sonar mp3 encoder or some 3rd party one.

As for levels, of course one should be careful not to go above 0dB to avoid clipping (though some people DO!), but getting good level isn't just a matter of getting tracks and mixes close to / near to "0" ... some digital sounds don't need to be that 'hot'. Analog sounds should be recorded at 'good' levels (and that is subjective, frankly).

My approach is to record tracks at levels which do not introduce noise (usually because they are too low), but not such hot levels that the recording gets "saturated". Though sometimes that "saturated" quality is a sound of its own (grin). It's tricky stuff and takes some experience, skill, and good ears. But there are some basic guidelines most people follow. Use your ears, though - that's usually the best approach.

HOpe that helps a bit ... this is just my understanding of it all based on my own experience. There are others around here that can offer much better and more technical explanations, though, I'm sure.

ORIGINAL: dave_music

I have not got into plugin yet. Is plugin a general term?
Is anything that can be applied to a wave form is called a plugin?
are Chorus/Reverb/Delay plugins? Thanks.

Can anyone explain to me what is dynamic range? is it a distance from the lowest point to the highest point of a wave form?

I could not see a track that is a mix of all other tracks in SONAR. Does mixing simply add all tracks together applying nondestructive FX? If this is the case, the mix must come to distortion(above 0db) ?

Thanks

The subject is always relevant, I believe..
but this thread is 12 years old :o)

For album projects, I normalize all my tracks. Then upon listening to the album, I reduce the level of tracks that sound too loud in comparison to the others.

Todays music is not only over compressed it is also expanded... that is the quietest sections are made louder in addition to the loudest sections made less loud, hence you have very limited dynamic range (which is unnatural) but what the masses crave.  I for one, hate modern mixes.  Gimme back the old analog stuff from the 70s and 80s and when people actually had to be musicians.
 
But, that's just me.
 
Jim
 
PS - I have seen waveforms of modern popular hits that show a THICK SOLID LINE (no peaks, no valleys). I really hate when they do this to modern re-mixed re-releases from the golden age of rock n roll