Subject:Keeping the same volume level through out a mix

Posted by: cyberbeat

Date:11/24/2000 4:33:00 PM

I am a night club DJ and want to record some of my nonstop
dance mixes in Soundforge 4.5 so I can then burn them on
CD. I am transferring them from minidisc to my PC using
the line-in jack of my Turtle Beach Santa cruise card.
Even though I try to keep the levels consistent from one
song to the next each song is a little different and I end
up with varying audio levels through the entire mix. I
want the over all mix to be one consistent volume and get a
full in-your-face type sound. Should I invest in a
hardware compressor/limiter and if so which one? Can I do
something in SoundForge to achieve this type of sound
without compromising the audio quality too much? Thanks
for any help/advice you can give me.

Steve

Subject:Re: Keeping the same volume level through out a mix

Reply by: Jeff_Lowes

Date:11/25/2000 12:46:00 AM

After you load-in your mixes from MD, (incidentally, can you transfer
them digitally from your MD player through your sound card into SF -
you will get an identical copy of your original mixes [no DA/AD
conversion] and there will be no chance of digital clipping or
accidental volume adjustment while recording into SF) mark the start
of each tune or set and set them up as regions. Then, normalize each
region to 0.0dB Peak (or -0.1dB Peak). This will set the peak volume
of each region to its digital maximum. Check volumes between regions;
if some are still too low, you can use graphic dynamics or RMS
normalization (with the 'if cliiping occurs...' box set to "apply
dynamic compression") to bring these up. If your hottest cuts are
plenty loud, you should probably normalize these down a little so you
don't have to over-compress the lower ones to match.
If you have a budget for some extra gear, you might check out the
Sonic Timeworks Mastering Compressor DirectX plug-in. It does an
excellent job of raising the volume levels of sound files without
squashing the life out of them. They have a FREE trial version
available for download so you can check it out first.

Jeff Lowes
On-Track Recording

Stephen Clark wrote:
>>I am a night club DJ and want to record some of my nonstop
>>dance mixes in Soundforge 4.5 so I can then burn them on
>>CD. I am transferring them from minidisc to my PC using
>>the line-in jack of my Turtle Beach Santa cruise card.
>>Even though I try to keep the levels consistent from one
>>song to the next each song is a little different and I end
>>up with varying audio levels through the entire mix. I
>>want the over all mix to be one consistent volume and get a
>>full in-your-face type sound. Should I invest in a
>>hardware compressor/limiter and if so which one? Can I do
>>something in SoundForge to achieve this type of sound
>>without compromising the audio quality too much? Thanks
>>for any help/advice you can give me.
>>
>>Steve
>>

Subject:Re: Keeping the same volume level through out a mix

Reply by: cyberbeat

Date:11/26/2000 4:41:00 PM

Thanks, Jeff, for your response. That was very helpful.

On-Track Recording wrote:
>>After you load-in your mixes from MD, (incidentally, can you
transfer
>>them digitally from your MD player through your sound card into SF -

>>you will get an identical copy of your original mixes [no DA/AD
>>conversion] and there will be no chance of digital clipping or
>>accidental volume adjustment while recording into SF) mark the
start
>>of each tune or set and set them up as regions. Then, normalize
each
>>region to 0.0dB Peak (or -0.1dB Peak). This will set the peak
volume
>>of each region to its digital maximum. Check volumes between
regions;
>>if some are still too low, you can use graphic dynamics or RMS
>>normalization (with the 'if cliiping occurs...' box set to "apply
>>dynamic compression") to bring these up. If your hottest cuts are
>>plenty loud, you should probably normalize these down a little so
you
>>don't have to over-compress the lower ones to match.
>>If you have a budget for some extra gear, you might check out the
>>Sonic Timeworks Mastering Compressor DirectX plug-in. It does an
>>excellent job of raising the volume levels of sound files without
>>squashing the life out of them. They have a FREE trial version
>>available for download so you can check it out first.
>>
>>Jeff Lowes
>>On-Track Recording
>>
>>Stephen Clark wrote:
>>>>I am a night club DJ and want to record some of my nonstop
>>>>dance mixes in Soundforge 4.5 so I can then burn them on
>>>>CD. I am transferring them from minidisc to my PC using
>>>>the line-in jack of my Turtle Beach Santa cruise card.
>>>>Even though I try to keep the levels consistent from one
>>>>song to the next each song is a little different and I end
>>>>up with varying audio levels through the entire mix. I
>>>>want the over all mix to be one consistent volume and get a
>>>>full in-your-face type sound. Should I invest in a
>>>>hardware compressor/limiter and if so which one? Can I do
>>>>something in SoundForge to achieve this type of sound
>>>>without compromising the audio quality too much? Thanks
>>>>for any help/advice you can give me.
>>>>
>>>>Steve
>>>>