I would love to be able to normalize the volume of the real tracks so that a change of track to another instrument or even the samre instrument keeps the same apparent volume
Some of the guitars, for instance, are very load compared to others. The bass tracks are quiet compared to their MIDI equivalents.
I would like to be able to set my volume controls so that the output across songs is consistent and I don't get blown away or have to use a hearing aid
This would be relatively easy to do in house at PG..... it would be time consuming and tedious..... but doable.
I've been aware of this for some time but it never really bothered me too much. I send all my tracks to Sonar and if they are too low, I normalize them in Sonar. Sometimes the ones that seem low even in Sonar are at the right levels for the final mix.... give or take.... and I always use volume envelopes.
I use normalize and have few issues with it.... the downside to normalizing every real band track to bring them up would be a mess if the track had a high noise floor in it. With normalize, everything in the track gets boosted at the same level....so any noise in there comes up the same as the low level music.
If the tracks in question have noise, they would need to be recorded again to resolve the noise issues then that becomes a much larger and more expensive task.
The thing that bothers me the most in this context is when I've got an instrument change on the same track and one instrument turns out to be noticeable louder than the other. This is especially evident with the soloist where for example I've gone from a mellow jazz guitar to a trombone.
Anyway, I think this suggestion is worth my +1
volume automation fixes that in seconds. L:et not forget these are tools, and once we have them we need to make them fit properly. If you recorded your own live tracks you would have to match them up and mix them.
I am not sure I understand what you mean by volume automation.
I would just like the bass tracks to match the resonator guitar for instance. I don't use alot of real tracks since i just use BIAB to fill in when a band member is absent, and I just want a good cover. With most styles the midi bass track is consistant eith the other midi tracks. If I switch to a real bass, it sounds like it it in another room