-
Mixing Sound and Keeping the Levels Equal
Hello Everyone:
I am having a little difficulty balancing the levels of the tracks; meaning, some volumes were recorded louder than others during the recording, and so I may level off well on the mix console where I believe the levels to be, but when I do this manually, and think that all is balanced well, I realize that I am only basing it on the previous audio and not the overall mix. I don’t know if I am explaining this clearly. In other words the first and second clip are balanced, but by the time I get to the 15th clip it becomes increasingly louder and I am not aware of it until I listen to the entire project. It becomes louder because it was recorded louder. Has this happened to anyone? Is there a way to measure the sound better than what I’ve been doing?
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
13 Replies
-
On the track of audio you want to be equalized to avoid parts being too loud and then too soft you can do the following.
Use the “track compressor” and set the threshold to -24.0, the amount to 2.0, and leave the rest alone. This will bring your low volume up and your high volume down.
Then on the “master FX” level you can open and use the “Wave Hammer Surround” and set that to -6bB and leave the rest alone. The wave hammer will keep any volume from going too high.
I’m sure others can give you more precise tips but that’s a start and might work.Roger Bansemer – PaintingAndTravel.com
-
Thank you Roger.
I will try it.
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
Before you add any compression, I would get your levels close using each clips volume and a combination of Normalize. You really need to watch the meter and try to get all your dialog within a certain range, say -12 to -6db – don’t rely on your ears – watch the meter! You’ll drive yourself crazy without the meters 🙂
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
Hi Lance:
Thank you. Great advice. What is troubling is that even the meters are not balancing the sound. What I mean by that is there are certain scenes that were recorded louder than others. When I equal the meters of those scenes with the scenes that were recorded lower, I still get the increase in volume as the movie progresses, but this was when I used the Track Volume Envelope. I think my problem was that everything was on one track. Now that everything is on separate tracks I can measure using the mix console. I will do what you suggest.
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
Hi Lance:
It just occurred to me that you may be speaking about a specific meter. Are you speaking of a loudness meter or the channels on the mix console in Vegas? My previous response to you was regarding the mix console channels not the loudness meter.
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
Deb
One thing to remember, before you compress a sound file, be sure to do a noise reduction. When you compress an audio file it not only brings up the low volumes it also brings up the noise floor. Noise that may not be heard in the original file will be very evident after compressing the file.
I would then “normalize” all files to 90db. That way you will keep any file from going into distortion and will set all tracks to the same peak level
-
Thanks Kevin:
Great advice. I didn’t know the db’s to normalize. Thank you so much.
I was just about to leave a post about my experience with RX3 and RX3 Advanced. I’ll go ahead and post it since this post is a few days old.
Thanks again.
Best,
Debbie
-
Hi Roger:
Thank you so much. Do I do this after leveling the dialogue to get it as close a possible, or do I do this as a pre-step?
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
Hi Kevin:
RX3 has a normalize feature. Should I wait to normalize in Sony, since that is where all of my other files are or do everything in RX3?
Many thanks,
Debbie
-
I would normalize after I had done my noise reduction, and compression at about 5 to 1. If your track still has some noise and the compression may bring up that noise level but if you can live with that it will level your a great deal. The normalizing should be the last processing you do.
It is much easier to normalize in you audio program as it will do the whole file at the same time. If you have a number of clips in vegas you would have to normalize each clip and the levels from clip to clip will give you a different over-all level after normalizing.
Cheers
Kevin
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up