Normalization, what is a good tool to use?

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-- Normalization, what is a good tool to use?

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-17-2001 16:50:

Normalization, what is a good tool to use?

I have a mix that my buddy recorded onto my MD, and it's way too quiet.

I need to get the volume levels up to peaking at 0db or just over.

does anyone know a good way to do this?

I want some software that will do this, but that doesn't have a lot of extra stuff. I think installing something like Soundforge or CoolEdit for this task would be a bit of overkill.

Preferably, I'd like something small and painless to install, uninstall, has bouncing level meters so I can set it up properly.

A waveform display is not neccesary.

anyone know of a good program for this?

Posted by Pjotr G on Dec-17-2001 17:00:

I haven't tried it out myself, but apparently a very decent mastering program is "T-racks". It should be able to do what u want and a bunch more.

Not sure tho!

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-17-2001 17:57:

Thanks dude!

it looks like it would do a good job.

unfortunately, the demo is save disabled. there are ways of getting around that I know, but still, I'd rather have freeware or shareware.

also, when trying to download the program I got this.

http://www.t-racks.com/Demos/T-RackS_Demo.zip

there are no other locations to download it from (at least not from cnet.download.com.

doh!

any other ideas?

Posted by Cable on Dec-17-2001 18:10:

http://www.neon1.net/prog/normalizer.html
http://www.bheller.com/file/NormalizeGUI_ini.zip

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-17-2001 18:16:

thanks cable!

extra marks for you in the mixing competition!

just kidding

Posted by boy_luke_y2k on Dec-17-2001 18:31:

Hey, me want more marx 2

I suggest Total Recorer, I can give U the prog and crak !!!

U know where 2 find me, unless I'm hiding

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-17-2001 18:37:

Yeah, total recorder isn't quite the right tool for the job.

I'd just be upping the gain levels, and that could introduce some distortion..

but thanks NEway dude.

I downloaded that stuff that cable suggested, I will let you know how it turns out..

the page for the GUI is in french though, I went to a neat translation site and got a pretty decent and readable page anyway though..

check it out, kind of entertaining.

http://fets3.freetranslation.com:50...m&Sequence=core

here is the page I used to find the translation page

http://www.babelfish.com

Posted by Ayianapa on Dec-17-2001 19:12:

I use T-racks on all my recordings, it's really great. You can get awsome results.

Posted by boy_luke_y2k on Dec-17-2001 20:57:

quote:
Originally posted by RavingLunatic
the page for the GUI is in french though, I went to a neat translation site and got a pretty decent and readable page anyway though..

check it out, kind of entertaining.

http://fets3.freetranslation.com:50...m&Sequence=core

here is the page I used to find the translation page

http://www.babelfish.com

u can use http://www.altavista.co.uk as well, they have a translation page for most languages.

Posted by DJTJ on Dec-18-2001 01:00:

The altavista translation uses the babelfish engine anyway. So they are actually the same thing.

Posted by clubzero on Dec-18-2001 11:17:

Sound Forge is Good. I use the "normalize peak level to 0dB option".

Club Zero

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-18-2001 16:41:

Yeah but loading up a 790Mb .wav file in soundforge takes a while.

I got it normalized with that nice program cable linked too..
it doesn't have to load the whole thing, so it's nice and quick.

it sounds pretty good. I also might want to apply compression, and maybe do something about the vinyl/needle noise..

anyone know anything for that?

maybe I should start a new thread...

Posted by Cable on Dec-18-2001 17:14:

if youre talking about compressing a file to a smaller size, than here http://www.dors.de/RazorLame/

if u want to do dynamic range compression here http://mp3stocker.tsx.org

any good editing program like cooledit pro and sound forge have filters to remove clicks and pops and hissing (noise reduction)

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-18-2001 17:24:

yeah, I think I mean dynamic range compression.
to get the sound, punchier, tighter, more proffesional sounding..

but I don't want to compress the filesize, or compress to mp3, that will degrade the sound quality. does the mp3stocker thing work on wav files?

I downloaded it a long time ago, and I recall not liking it very much..

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-18-2001 17:33:

quote:
Originally posted by Cable
if u want to do dynamic range compression here http://mp3stocker.tsx.org

argh, that link popped up a bunch of crap. I hate that! minus points for you in the mixing comp! again just kidding..

also

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-18-2001 17:36:

uh.. also I don't think it's what I need.

Posted by Cable on Dec-19-2001 00:02:

http://users.one.se/liket/mp3stock/audiostocker.zip

just open up a wav file in winamp, and find the settings u like best, then change to disk writer (this program does dynamic range compression)

but i recommend cooledit pro for dynamic range compression, altho it will taker longer and im not allowed to post links here cos then it would be warez

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-21-2001 20:33:

Damn!

I did all that work, duped 20 CDs for the guy, and they have skips on them!

I listened to the master on the MD, all the whole way through sounded great. then I recorded to wav using total recorder. then I normalized it with the program cable linked to. I burnt a master CD, took it home and tested it on my stereo, worked great. I thought I listened to the whole thing before bed, but I guess I didn't.

I duped the master, gave the CDs to him, and at 52 minutes in it starts skippin! FUCK! so, now he's out the 20cds, and I have to do this all over again..

he has also asked me to see if I can take some of the vinyl noise out of the recording.

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-22-2001 00:27:

DAMN! I tried to record again, this time I was super careful.

I left the recording going while I was gone so that the computer would have it's full attention on recording. i turned off anything that could screw it up, turned off system sounds, virus checker, screen saver, closed all programs etc.

the recording still starts skipping at 50 minutes in!

I have a 766Mhz computer, 5Gb of space free, 256Mb of ram, and I used total recorder to do the recording.

Anyone ever had these kinds of problems? Do you think it could be total recorder?

Posted by YuVaL on Dec-22-2001 20:53:

quote:
Originally posted by RavingLunatic
DAMN! I tried to record again, this time I was super careful.

I left the recording going while I was gone so that the computer would have it's full attention on recording. i turned off anything that could screw it up, turned off system sounds, virus checker, screen saver, closed all programs etc.

the recording still starts skipping at 50 minutes in!

I have a 766Mhz computer, 5Gb of space free, 256Mb of ram, and I used total recorder to do the recording.

Anyone ever had these kinds of problems? Do you think it could be total recorder?

Dude i think u can record with Cool edit pro 2000
maybe that will help ya..

Posted by RavingLunatic on Dec-23-2001 02:10:

yeah, i'm having it redone on my buddys computer with soundforge..

we also went over to his place and he recorded it again last night, just because he wasn't really happy with it. it was sweet, pounding ambient tribal house all night long.. I came over and hung out with him and his girlfriend, and in the morning got too spin on his 2 x Tech12 MK3D, 2 x Pioneer CDJI-500 and a Pioneer DJM500.

ahh, i need to get me some equipment!

anyway, I am babbling, but now I have two of this guys set on MD, albeit one in mono because we forgot the cord, and I'm redoing the conversion..

thanks for the tip.