Normalizing and gain limiting

Discussion in 'Audio' started by superhunk, Nov 30, 2005.

  1. superhunk

    superhunk Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2004
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    I was editing audio recorded from cassette.When I wanted to normalize the volume,spikes in the tracks (e.g. a trumpet note) would prevent the volume from rising.It's easy enough to edit a few spikes but if there are many it's endless.Some programs allow you to limit the gain when ripping or burning a cd,but I found no editors that do so.Most,like MP3gain,limit the gain for the whole track.Do you know an editor that limits the gain yet still normalizes the rest of the track?
     
  2. djscoop

    djscoop Active member

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2003
    Messages:
    4,051
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    66
    hoenslty man, I really would stick away from normalizing. It realizes changes the harmonic structure of a audio piece, and the result will not sound the way it was intended. Some types of music, espeically classical, are supposed to be very soft at some points and very loud at others....
     
  3. superhunk

    superhunk Member

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2004
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    Sorry for the slow reply,busy time of year.

    Quite right djscoop,not a good idea to use "gain limiting".
    Even very small use of it removes the "richness" of the track.
    Slightly more results in unpleasant and considerable up and
    down variation in vocals and other acoustics.However,carefull
    use of very slight amounts is usefull if you have old tapes
    with certain instruments,vocals,etc. wich come out too loud.

    While looking for free gain limiting programs,I found they
    were hard to find.I noticed however that there were many "VST"
    gain limiting plugins and they were also much smaller in size
    than the programs wich were trialware mostly.These "VST"
    plugins work in many programs,including Nero Wave Editor.You
    must restart Nero Wave Editor after installing them.I tested a
    few and learned they are also called "compressors".I then used
    Blaze Media Editor to evaluate the results and saw it had it's
    own "compressor".I found this one quite adequate for me.

    I will write some more about thes compressors soon.

    G'day!
     

Share This Page