Subject:Normalize Help!!!! How do I make all the songs i want to record to a cd have the sound volume level?

Posted by: betta

Date:6/16/2000 10:24:00 AM

Hello,

I've tried to normalize all my wav's so i can record them
on a cd and have them sound the same (volume wise). Once
i'm under the Normalize option, i'm totally lost and don't
know which option to choose. please tell me what to do or
am i using the wrong tool to make all my files sound the
same. Please be as specific as possible since i'm
completely new to using soundforge. TIA,
Nick

Subject:Re: Normalize Help!!!! How do I make all the songs i want to record to a cd have the sound volume level?

Reply by: Kelly_S

Date:6/20/2000 2:33:00 PM

Hi.

One suggestion is to normalize while processing EQ or Dynamic
Compression. All of our EQ and Compression (Dynamics) processes also
have a Gain slider. If you process a sample section of the loudest
part of your file and see how much room you have left before reaching
0dB, you can use the Gain slider in that process to "normalize" at
the same time.

Highlight what you know to be the loudest section or the area that
contains the loudest peak. The easiest methods of finding the
location of the highest peak in the file are:

Use Tools|Statistics, which will report Maximum sample position.

Use Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Find largest peak" (maximum
value). That will drop the cursor at the position of the loudest
peak.
Highlight a section to work on which contains this loudest peak. Have
the Play meters visible so that you can monitor how much headroom you
have before clipping when you generate Previews. When Previewing a
Dynamics setting and the meters show -3.2 dB as the highest level,
you can then raise Output Gain to +3.2 dB in the Dynamics dialog
window, and it will effectively Normalize it by that amount at the
same time the Dynamics processing is performed. After you have
settled on parameters for Dynamics and your Preview shows 0.0 dB as
the peak level (now that you have raised the Output Gain), click on
the Selection button and under Selection choose "Select all data."
Then when you click OK, it will process the entire file and not only
the highlighted area you were using for your Preview. After you are
done, you can go to Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Clipping" to
see if levels went into the red anywhere.

It is a good idea to normalize at the same time you are processing EQ
or Dynamic Compression because the fewer times you have to run any
process, the better it will sound, and there will be less possibility
of causing digital artifacts

Thanks.

nick brady wrote:
>>Hello,
>>
>>I've tried to normalize all my wav's so i can record them
>>on a cd and have them sound the same (volume wise). Once
>>i'm under the Normalize option, i'm totally lost and don't
>>know which option to choose. please tell me what to do or
>>am i using the wrong tool to make all my files sound the
>>same. Please be as specific as possible since i'm
>>completely new to using soundforge. TIA,
>>Nick

Subject:Re: Normalize Help!!!! How do I make all the songs i want to record to a cd have the sound volume level?

Reply by: betta

Date:6/22/2000 12:17:00 PM

hello,
Thanks for the help, but it seems like this would only normalize one
song, how do I normalize a bunch of songs so that when i record these
songs to a cd, they would all sound alike (volume vice)?
Nick

K.Shaffer wrote:
>>Hi.
>>
>>One suggestion is to normalize while processing EQ or Dynamic
>>Compression. All of our EQ and Compression (Dynamics) processes
also
>>have a Gain slider. If you process a sample section of the loudest
>>part of your file and see how much room you have left before
reaching
>>0dB, you can use the Gain slider in that process to "normalize" at
>>the same time.
>>
>>Highlight what you know to be the loudest section or the area that
>>contains the loudest peak. The easiest methods of finding the
>>location of the highest peak in the file are:
>>
>>Use Tools|Statistics, which will report Maximum sample position.
>>
>>Use Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Find largest peak" (maximum
>>value). That will drop the cursor at the position of the loudest
>>peak.
>>Highlight a section to work on which contains this loudest peak.
Have
>>the Play meters visible so that you can monitor how much headroom
you
>>have before clipping when you generate Previews. When Previewing a
>>Dynamics setting and the meters show -3.2 dB as the highest level,
>>you can then raise Output Gain to +3.2 dB in the Dynamics dialog
>>window, and it will effectively Normalize it by that amount at the
>>same time the Dynamics processing is performed. After you have
>>settled on parameters for Dynamics and your Preview shows 0.0 dB as
>>the peak level (now that you have raised the Output Gain), click on
>>the Selection button and under Selection choose "Select all data."
>>Then when you click OK, it will process the entire file and not
only
>>the highlighted area you were using for your Preview. After you are
>>done, you can go to Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Clipping" to
>>see if levels went into the red anywhere.
>>
>>It is a good idea to normalize at the same time you are processing
EQ
>>or Dynamic Compression because the fewer times you have to run any
>>process, the better it will sound, and there will be less
possibility
>>of causing digital artifacts
>>
>>Thanks.

Subject:Re: Normalize Help!!!! this is where it gets tricky...

Reply by: O_G_Killa

Date:7/26/2000 12:05:00 PM

Hi Nick,

This is where it gets tricky because if you normalize one file and
then do the same to all the rest they still won't sound the same
volume wise because of two reasons...

Since each song is at a different volume to begin with, finding a
preset volume increase across all of the songs won't help. One song
may need an increase of 3dB while another may need to be increased by
12dB.

EQ plays a very big part of our "perceived" volume. Technically
speaking something with tons of bass down around 20-30Hz will have a
higher peak and RMS value than something with a flat freq. response.
But, our ears won't hear all that bass because of the freq. response
of our ears (and our speakers), but to SF it is still louder.
Likewise if a recording has very little bass (say below 300Hz) it
will sound very quiet compared to a song with a flat freq. response.
So what will happen is you increase the volume so that the Loudest
peak is at 0dB, but your song will still seem kind of quiet.

The best thing to do is to use your ears and listen and try to match
the volume and frequency response of each song from one to another.
This is why mastering is so tough and expensive...and it is also why
it is one of the most important steps to making Professional CDs.

One song may have more bass than the next...and the third song may
have a lot of highs and sound sizzly compared to the rest. If you
just normalize to the peak volume you aren't correcting for any of
these differences. And these difference will affect the perceived
volume of each track.

Sometimes...try using EQ (never too much, always just a little at a
time), Compression (the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer and Renassaince
Compressor are a god-send and totally worth the money), and side-band
compression (similar to a de-esser, you don't compress everything,
you only compress sounds within a certain freq. range while all other
frequencies go uncompressed...SF has this function and they call it
Multiband dynamics).

A good rule of thumb is everything will sound good in moderation.
But don't overdue any one type of effect. Subtle compression, subtle
EQ, and/or a little sideband EQ to control the a frequency range you
think is a little too obtrusive (e.g. this mix just sounds a little
too bass heavy or a little to bright in certain spots, but not
through the whole song....sideband compress those frequencies and you
are good to go!)

So, in conclusion. There is not real way to just find a setting and
go through all of your songs with that one setting. You need to do
each song individually and compare it to the others to try and get
them to all sound similar.

Hope this helped! :-)








nick brady wrote:
>>hello,
>>Thanks for the help, but it seems like this would only normalize
one
>>song, how do I normalize a bunch of songs so that when i record
these
>>songs to a cd, they would all sound alike (volume vice)?
>>Nick
>>
>>K.Shaffer wrote:
>>>>Hi.
>>>>
>>>>One suggestion is to normalize while processing EQ or Dynamic
>>>>Compression. All of our EQ and Compression (Dynamics) processes
>>also
>>>>have a Gain slider. If you process a sample section of the
loudest
>>>>part of your file and see how much room you have left before
>>reaching
>>>>0dB, you can use the Gain slider in that process to "normalize"
at
>>>>the same time.
>>>>
>>>>Highlight what you know to be the loudest section or the area
that
>>>>contains the loudest peak. The easiest methods of finding the
>>>>location of the highest peak in the file are:
>>>>
>>>>Use Tools|Statistics, which will report Maximum sample position.
>>>>
>>>>Use Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Find largest peak"
(maximum
>>>>value). That will drop the cursor at the position of the loudest
>>>>peak.
>>>>Highlight a section to work on which contains this loudest peak.
>>Have
>>>>the Play meters visible so that you can monitor how much headroom
>>you
>>>>have before clipping when you generate Previews. When Previewing
a
>>>>Dynamics setting and the meters show -3.2 dB as the highest
level,
>>>>you can then raise Output Gain to +3.2 dB in the Dynamics dialog
>>>>window, and it will effectively Normalize it by that amount at
the
>>>>same time the Dynamics processing is performed. After you have
>>>>settled on parameters for Dynamics and your Preview shows 0.0 dB
as
>>>>the peak level (now that you have raised the Output Gain), click
on
>>>>the Selection button and under Selection choose "Select all
data."
>>>>Then when you click OK, it will process the entire file and not
>>only
>>>>the highlighted area you were using for your Preview. After you
are
>>>>done, you can go to Tools|Find, and under Name choose "Clipping"
to
>>>>see if levels went into the red anywhere.
>>>>
>>>>It is a good idea to normalize at the same time you are
processing
>>EQ
>>>>or Dynamic Compression because the fewer times you have to run
any
>>>>process, the better it will sound, and there will be less
>>possibility
>>>>of causing digital artifacts
>>>>
>>>>Thanks.
>>