Raising The Volume

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Borg166
Posts: 105
Joined: 22:14, 6 March 2004

Raising The Volume

Post by Borg166 »

When I sample custom drums that I create, I use the normalize effect after to make them louder. However, when I sample a 3-minute long song and use the normalize effect, it doesn't seem to change anything. Does anyone else notice this?

I have to make a few tracks on my Fantom for someone but I want them to be louder after I record (sample) them. Do I not understand the normalize effect?
abcd1234
Posts: 364
Joined: 03:06, 27 June 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by abcd1234 »

As far as I understand, you have recorded a song (I think the word sampling is not correct) and it's not loud enough even after normalizing.

If so, you should do some processing on your song which is called "Mastering". Mastering is the correct use of Compressor, Limiter and EQ on the recorded song. If you have some high quality processors and the knowledge and experience, do that. If not, you can send me the Wave, or SQV file and I will do that for you (I have Fantom-X).

here is my email address:
sam_vafaei@yahoo.com

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7
Saki X
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Sam...

Post by Saki X »

I was wondering how long it usually takes you, and if you charge for mastering. I would like to hear some results from your skills, so I would like permission to send a track to you for testing.

I really appreciate anything you can do for me. Thanks!


Regards,
Saki


Saki XL
Instrumentally Sick EVOLUTION

Good Work, Soldier!
"...Boku no kore wa tatakai desu..."
Borg166
Posts: 105
Joined: 22:14, 6 March 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by Borg166 »

When I click on the "Sampling" button on the Fantom, I choose "re-sample" for turning custom drums into .wav files AND to turn my songs into .wav files.

1) After the .wav is created, I use the normalize effect on the custom drum .wav's I create, and the result is that the drums end up sounding louder.

2) However, when I try to record an entire song doing the same process, I also try to use the normalize effect to make the entire song sound louder. I notice no difference in volume after that using normalize.

You see, I am using the re-sample option for two different things. I noticed that if I only record a simple drum sound (less than 1 sec long) it can get louder through normalize. But if I try to record an entire song (3 minutes complete with drums, strings, etc), the normalize option doesn't seem to have any effect at all on the large .wav file.
Borg166
Posts: 105
Joined: 22:14, 6 March 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by Borg166 »

You know what, I just tried it again and I think it might be working. I'll let you know for sure in a little bit.
Flowing
Posts: 192
Joined: 08:48, 20 January 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by Flowing »

Perhaps the Fantom normalizes by peak rather than by RMS. A few spikes/peaks in your song would result in most of the song not increasing much in volume. To hear AND visualize this difference, download the trial version of Sony/Sonic Foundry Sound Forge, load one of your .wav files, then try normalizing the file in the two different ways it can be normalized.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/d ... sp?DID=461
abcd1234
Posts: 364
Joined: 03:06, 27 June 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by abcd1234 »

Saki X:

Mastering can take from 2 days to almost 1 week or more...(never master a song in one day, cause you should listen to your work after listening to other music and also give a rest to your ears and mind to get a good resualt). The final answer is "it depends on the song".

Did you mean getting money by "charging"? (sorry for my english). If so, I haven't charged anyone for mastering yet, casue I have mastered only my own songs and I usually! don't charge myself ;-)

If your works don't take too much time I will do that for free, but if they take too much, we can set a low rate for that.

anyway, I will be happy to help you.


Borg166:

You'r right. Have you ever seen a wave form in an audio editor program? (for sure! at least you have seen that in your FS screen).

Most of the uncompressed sounds have some virtual peaks(sorry if I can't explain that clearly). I mean the peak that you will see in the audio editor is not really the VERY loud part of the song, though it may be seen much higher that other waves in the file. And when you have many instruments like drums, strings, piano... you will have more virtual peaks.

So when you normalize a single instrument, you have less virtual peaks so your result is much better. What a compressor does is normalizing the whole song by ignoring the virtual peaks.

Two more things:

Quality of equipment in mastering is as important as your knowledge and experience, cause low quality tools may have some virtual or also bad results. And one thing that I forgot is the monitoring system. You must have a good pair of monitors to be able to understand what you are REALLY doing on the sound file.

Mastering is like walking on the edge. You may get a bad result if overprocess the song, and you will not get a good result if you don't use your tools enough.

Sam

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7
Borg166
Posts: 105
Joined: 22:14, 6 March 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by Borg166 »

I think I should be using Amp instead of Normalize for an entire song.
abcd1234
Posts: 364
Joined: 03:06, 27 June 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by abcd1234 »

Amp?!!

What do you mean by amp?

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7
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Artemiy
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Re: Raising The Volume

Post by Artemiy »

"Amp" is an amplifier function. But Borg166 is wrong about using it - you will not be able to achieve higher volume that using Normalise - and if you will, the sound will get distorted. Normalise amplifies the signal to 0 dB.

Borg166: the reason why your song can't be as loud as drums is that the song contains more complex-spectrum audio, and more level variations than a single drum shot - thus, normalising a single drum may give you louder volume, but the average "energy" of both normalised samples will be the same (this is the way Normalise works), it just seems that the drum is more loud.


A.
abcd1234
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Joined: 03:06, 27 June 2004

Re: Raising The Volume

Post by abcd1234 »

Yes, I agree with Artemio. That is why I put 2 !! after the word "amp". That seems to be miles away from the correct way of increasing the average loudness of the song.

But Art, I think lowering the drum sound in the mix will not help to increase the RMS so much. Also, the drum sound may not be too loud.

Flowing:

When the word "normalizing" is used alone (with any peak, or RMS prefix), that means peak normalizing. Also, I think Sound Forge's RMS normalizing doesn't have a good compression. I got a bad result from Sound Forge 6, almost a year ago.

I think Fantom's mastering effects may work.

Sam

March 14th 1984
Music student at Dalhousie
Fantom-X 7
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