I'm hoping someone can kindly advise me. I'm nearing the completion of a project (17 tracks) and I have mixed and exported them as uncompressed wav files.

I'm using NCH Wavepad as an editor and I would like to have a neat trim on the peaks and lows (like as if cut across with a craft knife or scissors) as most 'good' audio files look.

Can anyone advise me on how to do this? 

Thanks! 

Sonar 8.5 Producer
Izotope Ozone 5
NCH Wavepad

What exactly do you mean? The audio won't get better through 'trimming' peaks and I don't know how you'd trim lows anyway. It sounds a bit like you want the audio to be soft-clipped, but that will introduce distortion that is usually undesirable. Sometimes this is considered a reasonable tradeoff in order to get more loudness, but you've not said that you need that.

as most 'good' audio files look.

"good" audio files don't look like a brick.
"good" audio files have dynamics.


But then, the definition of 'good' has sort of changed over the years.


loud over compressed and limited audio files usually look like a brick.


So, instead of scissors, you would use compressors and limiters.

The process which makes this change is called Mastering. Begin by reading some articles on what mastering a song/album is. The tools used to make it look like that are compressors and limiters. These are just one part of the mastering process. To get it looking like professional 'masters' while not sounding extremely bad takes years and years of experience. It's not an easy task.

Keep in mind that compressing your music to look like this changes the sound. If you take it to extremes, it can degrade the sound quality. Subtle and well implemented compression can make it actually sound better, which again takes much skill. A large amount of music out there today is actually overly processed so the signal quality does in fact degrade. What they are trying to do is make that song as loud as possible when compared with another song whilst having the volume knob in the same place. Many believe this is kind of pointless (as do I). If the consumer wants it loud, they should just turn up the volume knob. But I digress.

In short, you have no hope of learning it over night. Don't expect to compete with professional stuff for a very long time yet. Experiment, see how it sounds using limiters, and then compare back to the un-processed version (at the same perceived volume). Once you can hear the quality degrade, stop and back off a little. For now, this is probably as far as you want to go. Be happy with what you have cause the next level up from this takes a little more time to learn! So get reading and get learning!

Thanks guys. I have been reading and reading . . . and more reading. It's difficult seeing that I'm on my own with no one to bounce ideas off. Come to think of it, before I posted it, it read like a stupid question and now, having read your replies, it's sounds even more stupid.

It's like running in quicksand. The more I "learn", the more I realise how far behind I am. 

The bits and pieces will in time fall into place, giving you a more accurate picture so to speak. But the subject is vast and depending on how far you want to go, many many years of trial and error await your journey. Good luck! 

siog


Thanks guys. I have been reading and reading . . . and more reading. It's difficult seeing that I'm on my own with no one to bounce ideas off. Come to think of it, before I posted it, it read like a stupid question and now, having read your replies, it's sounds even more stupid.

It's like running in quicksand. The more I "learn", the more I realise how far behind I am. 

Don't despair - when I started the internet was only in its infancy. I was thankful for publications like SOS to help out.


I can guarantee you one thing -  if you have a problem of any kind which is audio related, someone on these forums will know the answer.


Be prepared to do a LOT of reading. Arm yourself with a few decent books on the subject:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Audio-Concepts-Practices-Tools/dp/0240522222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340656416&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Secrets-small-studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340656431&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340656445&sr=1-1-spell
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonar-8-Power/dp/1598638211/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340656474&sr=1-8

Not a stupid question. In fact, it is one of the most fundamental of the Big Questions we spend decades trying to answer.

The first step, siog, is to determine if your "peaks" represent a bad thing, or indeed if they're telling you anything at all. So are we talking about spectral peaks, or dynamics?

Sometimes when I export as an uncompressed wav and open in WavePad, there are one or two VERY tall spots in the mix compared to the main body. I thought that maybe if I could trim them, I could then increase the whole file in volume so that most of the audio wouldn't be so far away from the peaks. Bad idea?

siog


Sometimes when I export as an uncompressed wav and open in WavePad, there are one or two VERY tall spots in the mix compared to the main body. I thought that maybe if I could trim them, I could then increase the whole file in volume so that most of the audio wouldn't be so far away from the peaks. Bad idea?

I would go back to the tracks and finf the culprit and fix it there. Then re-export.