quote:

Originally posted by sr126 i'm not arguing w/what you are saying... but at the same time, a lot depends on how the dj want's to present the final product (the mix) to his/her audience. there IS a tastefull way to master a dj mix. how or if it is done is simply a matter of choice/philosophy/concept. using a compressor isn't really bad news per-say. everything has to do w/how it is set. i always used it to control a stray peak here and there. nothing noticeable. especially not to the average ear, on an average bookshelf system, or average car stereo. if you use it discreetly a slight loss of fidelity is worth it. especially, when trying to save yourself from having to re-record a mix when you're 68min into it because you popped the recorder. (-digital distortion)

Good points, well said. I should have said I was refering to a particular application of compression.

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quote:

Originally posted by Zild Personally I wouldn't normalize anything. Saps your dynamics.

Normalizing does not affect the dynamics of the audio in anyway what normalizing does is it looks at the highest peak in the entire clip. Then it raises the volume of the entire clip equally, so that the peak reaches 0db or whatever you want. It does the same as just turning up the volume knob on your mixer/amp but this is very price and wont go over and clip.

I don't agree but that is cool. What you're talking about is just adjusting the amplitude of the waveform so that it peaks at 0db, which can be done without using the normalization plugin.

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quote:

Originally posted by Zild I don't agree but that is cool. What you're talking about is just adjusting the amplitude of the waveform so that it peaks at 0db, which can be done without using the normalization plugin.

How? I agree with Tommy, normalization doesn't change any 'dynamics'

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"I played 12.30 til close at 3am at the club (Antro), following on from an Australian dj,
which seemed unusual in deepest Texas." - Judge Jules

AFAIK normalization brings some peaks up while it lowers others. OK so I started messing around with the normalization to see what you guys are talking about. Hmm not sure if it does anything to the dynamics anymore. I think you guys are right. However it does introduce noise into the file. I think that's why I don't use normalization.

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it won't introduce anything more that isn't already in the recording

all normalizing does is simply turn up the gain

so record your sets peaking at -3db to leave headroom for those stray peaks

then when you're done, normalize and you should be good to burn

you get noise if you're using standard cables, make sure you use balanced and use as little connectors as possible, the shortest, cleanest and least obstruced path will give you the best audio signal

so if you can, use digital above all else, but if you're going analog, XLR straight from your mixer to an XLR equipped soundcard will be optimum

1/4" balanced TRS will do

if you can use only RCA, do yourself a favor and invest in good cables, you'll save yourself a lot of headache

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quote:

Originally posted by Tony Morello all normalizing does is simply turn up the gain

Yes, provided you recorded with a lower than desirable gain, which is what should be done obviously. But yeah, point being that you are adjusting the gain on the whole mix, no matter the frequency of the signal.

Also, note that when you normalise, you don't want to normalise the 'highest peak' to 0db. You could have a handful or even just one or two stray high peaks which then make your whole mix soft, if you normalise in this way. Instead, normalisation is normally done with respect to the average RMS (root mean square) gain of your entire mix, and thus you normalise the RMS to something like -16db.

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quote:

Originally posted by Rememberence_ Compression is bad news. What you are doing is you are adjusting the gains depending on frequency, so that in the high end there is little if any change in gain, but the lower the frequency, the bigger the gain boost. This 'fattens' up the low end to make things louder without making the high end too loud to tolerate. In other words, you are reducing the dynamic range of the audio signal, which means you are losing fidelity. Screw that. If you really suck at EQing during a set, then do some EQing on the recording itself.

All the compressor is doing is making sure my filter doesnt mess up my levels when I use it, it has also brought my old tracks back to life so they sound crisp again. I still end up with a mix at 24bit and 96khz with the use of my converter. They sound pretty crisp when they are done. I need to record a few more times (only just set it up on sunday) but the two Ive done sound pretty good soundwise. Im sure there are other ways to get a similar result but this what Im working with and Im happy with the result.

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i never normalize, i think it makes it sound like shit. i just make sure the gains don't get too out of whack when i'm recording.

I think a few people are struggling with the concept of what normalizing does...
It doesnt add or change anything unless there is some kind of problem with the plugin and its doing something it shouldnt! It just turns the volume up or down...

yeah carnts it really isn't that difficult a concept to grasp

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"I played 12.30 til close at 3am at the club (Antro), following on from an Australian dj,
which seemed unusual in deepest Texas." - Judge Jules