mp3 Normalize Adventure - PG Music Forums

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We have about 15 tunes that we do for our care facilities gigs. Our backups are from BIAB, Playalong cd's, and karaoke cd's and/or downloads. I've been using MP3 Gain for sometime but even with that I still have to adjust the volume on some tunes. Today, I decided to try some other software.

I found about 3-4 other programs via Google. I downloaded and tried 3 of them. It was immediately obvious that the creators of these programs were not English speaking. I don't really care about that except that they didn't get a competent translator. I thought this interesting since some of their websites were pretty elaborate and appeared that there was no language problem.

I've got no problem with someone trying to make a buck, but the trial limitations on these programs were such that you were pretty much limited to one try with batch processing. That would be fine if you knew the program, but some didn't even have a Help feature. In the end, I uninstalled all of "gain normalize" software and went back to the one I've been using, "MP3Gain". Ironically, I would have gladly paid for a program if it worked as advertised. I guess that I'm thinking that there really isn't a program out there that can make volume on each file, within a group, to have the same volume as all of the other files. Obviously my knowledge of sound mechanics is limited and I've come to learn that vocals cannot really be separated out without a lot of work and specialized equipment. I'm learning to play my trumpet better one-handed as I make volume adustments. Actually, it's sort of like turning chart pages.

I would think that there would be a market for software to both normalize and adjust volume via batch processing. Am I really dumb about this or what?

Stan

Stan

Stan,

Audacity has a "normalize" function that will boost or cut the level of a selection of audio files so that all the peaks will be the same level. It will process an unlimited number of files (limited only by your computer's processing capabilities).

The challenge lies in the fact that some digital audio files are heavily compressed, so that the peaks will be the same from file to file, but perceived sound volume will vary greatly depending on the degree of compression.

My suggestion: use Audacity, or your favourite audio editor, to get each of your backing track files leveled, EQed and compressed to suit your ear - one file at a time.

you could put a volume pedal between the CD player and your PA. That way you can make adjustments on the fly if necessary while keeping both hands on the trumpet

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My suggestion: use Audacity, or your favourite audio editor, to get each of your backing track files leveled, EQed and compressed to suit your ear - one file at a time.

+1

and, Audacity is free.

Setting the volume on individual files is what I've been doing with WavePad and Real Band. However, the vol levels within a group of tunes varies so I have to adjust manually. After my last post, I tried album analysis rather than track analysis on MP3Gain with much better results. I had not thought of using a foot pedal and I'm probably too uncoordinated to use it. I've heard a lot of good things about Audacity and am wondering why I bought Mixcraft since I never seem to get around to learning it. I save everything to .wav and have been doing all of my compressing to mp3 via WavePad--a pretty simple pgm to learn. I haven't had good luck in trying to save to mp3 in BIAB or RB. I think it may be due to my SD2 setup. I've been using 160 rather than 128 in WavePad which does seem to provide better quality. Thanks for your responses.

Stan

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I haven't had good luck in trying to save to mp3 in BIAB or RB. I think it may be due to my SD2 setup.

nothing to do with your setup, BIAB and RB do not export .mp3 files

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I haven't had good luck in trying to save to mp3 in BIAB or RB. I think it may be due to my SD2 setup.

nothing to do with your setup, BIAB and RB do not export .mp3 files

In my BIAB 2012 version, if you click the .WAV button, under "Render To Audio", there's another butgton labeled "Save In Other Audio Format and MP3", but with an external synth, I've only been able to use "*(Re)-Render to WAV File...".

In Real Band, if you right click on a track, one item on the list is "Save Audio Track (or selection)as wav/wma/mp4/mp4a/mp3..." I haven't tried saving to mp3 in Real Band except to save an existing mp3 file that I've edited. I use Trim and Normalize in WavePad and convert to mp3 there also.

I'm going to try Audicity and see if it works better than MP3Gain for batch processing.

I use a vol pedal because no matter how even the tracks are sometimes I need to make a slight adjustment.

Sony's CD Architect has a by-track Normalize function. Not that I use it.

Normalize is not the end-all.

It simply boosts the loudest part of a song to a specified level (0db or -3db are common).

So take two songs, song A has a couple of very loud peaks and song B has a pretty consistent volume with no loud peaks.

Normalize both.

Song A will have the loud peaks boosted to the ceiling while the rest of the song might be 6db lower than the peaks.

Song B will have the not so loud peaks boosted to the ceiling while the rest of the song might be only 1db lower than the peaks.

The net result will be the bulk of song A will be 5db lower than song B and it will not sound nearly as loud.

And that's the problem with the normalize function.

To get around that you might try Power Tracks Pro Audio. It has a function where you can boost the volume of song A in the example above without running the peaks through the ceiling (I assume it has some kind of peak limiter/compression factor in the routine).

You have to use your ears a lot. That's one reason why mastering engineers can charge the big bucks that they do

I have over 500 songs that I've done myself. When I learn a new one, I try to match the volumes as best as I can with my ears in my home studio. However, when I get on the gig and do it for the first time the backing track might still be a little low or loud, so I tweak it a bit and try again the next night. Usually it's right the first or second time, 3 tries is uncommon and the most it has ever taken me is 5 tries.

If all this was easy, people wouldn't pay me to have so much fun at their party!!!

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