do you normalize normally, er...

[rhynoclemmis]

Hi,

Just wanted to ask if you click on "Normalize" in Audacity after years of mixing and mastering in Riffworks. Does that "kill" all your work? Does it just make it all a little louder?

Also: are your RW wavs also so damn silent? The "song volume"-button is set to -6 in most of my songs because of some issues during recording. And if I export the wavs, put them on CD I have to turn up my car's stereo ALL THE WAY just to hear it in a decent volume. Any tips?

[GuitarSlinger]

In audacity I believe Amplify is the best choice. It wont hurt anything as long as you don't allow clipping. If you want to get even louder then you'll need a master limiter too. A master limiter can squash the drums down a bit and bring the guitars a little more up front.

You'll have to experiment with the master limiter to see how loud you can get it without having adverse effects like what happens if you overdue it in Riffworks.

Keep a folder of your original wav files for archiving, so you can easily start over if you need to.

[mickeymix]

Yeah I always put to roughly -6 (maybe a lil higher to cut out the limiter) in RW's and export to Wavelab to add my own master limiter levels and room ambience, then to Audacity to amplify just a tad and mix to mp3, Wav, and ogg to upload to Riffcaster.....seems to work fine for me ....though you can do it all in Audacity.....it's just that I use Wavelab for "real time" VST action.... a little quicker that way for me that way.

[ShredRex]

Yeah I do normalize, limit and expand tracks via Soundbooth before releasing to the world.....lol

[scott]

I always use the 'normalize' funtion and have, over many, many attempts, managed to come up with a 'curve' which gives me a finished sound that's a bit more 'even' over the audio spectrum.

[rhynoclemmis]

Yeah I always put to roughly -6 (maybe a lil higher to cut out the limiter) in RW's and export to Wavelab to add my own master limiter levels and room ambience, ...

Thanks for all the replies. Now, this does not have much/anything to do with normalizing anymore, but: I've learnt in this forum to apply a touch of reverb on all instruments, more on the drums, to simulate a room. This actually works great and the song gets a far more "real" sound. Now do you in addition add room ambience or don't you apply reverb in RW?

(I'm now more or less finishing my first three songs and I'm a damn perfectionist.)

[ShredRex]

Guitars get verb, and leads get some delay.....the drums I simply adjust the ambiance as required. Bass I leave flat.

[mickeymix]

In WaveLab, I usually add just a hint of room ambience to the entire track with Cakewalks "Perfect Space" a great sounding VST....and always a different setting for every tune....which ever sounds good with the amounts of Delay and reverb on my guitar / vocal patches...then a Master Limiter....I rarely use Normalizing on any tune.......it seems to take a little something away from the overall sound.... that's why I prefer the Master Limiter by Kjaerhus...and it's free.... you can get it here (for XP) along with all the "Classic" VST FX....

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/download.php#free

[blue4u]

Look into multi-band compression too. That's the essential mastering tool because it allows you to compress different frequencies separately. So, if you have 4 different bands of compression for low, low-mid, high-mid, and high you can focus (or zoom in) on different parts of the track to compress them more or less. That way, you have a more even representation of all the frequencies and more head room so you can get things louder. I hope that made some sense? There are plenty of free VSTs out there for multi-band compression so look into it and see what you come up with. I've heard that Izotope Ozone and IK Multimedia T-Racks are favorites for this application. I use Reaper which includes it for free.

Have fun!
Rich

[JouniL]

Blue: how good (in your opinion) are the Reaper bundled VSTs?

[blue4u]

It's a mixed bag. Some are excellent and others are just ordinary. They do what they say they do but aren't always easy to use or figure out. The forums are helpful though!

This is from their web site:

Includes over a dozen top quality 64-bit ReaPlugs:

* Unlimited multiband EQ
* Graphical FFT equalization/dynamics processing
* Technical and multiband compression
* Flexible, open-format convolution reverb
* Real-time pitch correction, including Elastique Pro built in
* Multitap delay, basic synthesizer, sample player
* Special-use plug-ins to virtualize outboard hardware, stream audio and more

[GuitarSlinger]

Blue: how good (in your opinion) are the Reaper bundled VSTs?

If you don't have these free plugs ins I think you will get some good mileage with them. I like the master limiter, compressor, reverb, and eq.

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

[rhynoclemmis]

Wow. Honestly, thanks for all the answers, but this is overloading me a little bit. I appreciate that all of you took time to give me some tips, but ...

...ok....

What I want to do is make a good sounding record. I guess I can write relatively complex (in the sense of standard rock/metal songs) and catchy songs. I can play bass decently and because of RW now started to re-learn guitar. Hell, I'm spending nights solo-ing around to riffs I played myself a few hours before. I mastered my drum PC and got a little other stuff to help out with the background feeling.
My goal is to make some songs that sound REALLY thick, dense, bassy, and simply don't have a cheap sound (which IMHO is the überproblem you face when recording music at home with anything but native instruments or other House stuff). I'm not aiming for some Nashville-sized musical milestones, at least if it costs me three nights (or make that thirty) mastering the stuff.

The main problem for me is that I can't make out what it will take me to master and apply it, what result it will really bring (speaking of all your tips here). I'm just starting now, so I of course do know that even with the best of advice there will be some trial and error-phase for me.

There's been multi-band compression, reverb and delay in RW, room ambience,... it's honestly just a little too much. I know you've got to learn something in order to use it, but for me it's more the question: what do I really need (as in really, really need) to make it a good-sounding song?

Honestly, I really appreciate all your advice but fact is: I can't pinpoint what I need and what would make a recording session into an unforgetable experience or an endless horror trip.

rhyno/flo

[ShredRex]

Truth be told if you learn to use the effects in RW (making sure the tracking is good to start with) you can produce killer quality songs in just RW alone.

[blue4u]

Truth be told if you learn to use the effects in RW (making sure the tracking is good to start with) you can produce killer quality songs in just RW alone.

I won't argue with that! It depends on how much control you think you need or want. I would recommend learning everything you can about RW first and then if you still need more start exploring other options