The Song Fight Bulletin Board

On a final mix, what order should I use these?
Compression
Reverb (a light speckle to make everything shine)
Vintage Warmer (my baby)
EQ
Normalize (I'm compiling songs for an album and trying to keep them the same volume)

I've been doing this:
EQ > Compression > Reverb > Vintage Warmer > Normalize

And everything sounds good. However, I want to make sure this is the best sounding way to run those effects.

Thanks!

The most important placements are EQ first and normalize last, like you have it. The order of the others depends on the sound you're going for, and since you say it sounds good, then everything's set right.

A note, though:

Normalize (I'm compiling songs for an album and trying to keep them the same volume)

Depending on the dynamics of your music, this might not work. Normalizing only ensures that the loudest peaks in each track are at the same level. But our ears judge loudness based more on the average volume level (generally called the RMS level). Traditionally, a mastering engineer will use a compressor, and sometimes a limiter, to control the peaks and get the average level between each track the same.

In that setup, you'd route the signal as:

EQ > Reverb > Vintage Warmer > Compression > Normalize

But again, you say it sounds good the way it is, and that's the most important thing. Trust your ears!

I'm not sure which setting you are using, but Vintage Warmer is an EQ/Compressor combo. You may not need more than that.

Ken

How does everyone recommend I get all my tracks at the same volume? I don't really know, some people say compression, some say limiter, some say normalize, can anyone help?

jeffgowins3 wrote:How does everyone recommend I get all my tracks at the same volume? I don't really know, some people say compression, some say limiter, some say normalize, can anyone help?

Unfortunately, like most things in music production, the only universally true answer is "use your ears." Beyond that, every situation is different and requires different tools and techniques.

Some quick tips, though:
- Unless your tracks all have the same dynamics (i.e. the difference between the loudest and quietest parts), normalizing isn't going to help. Again, normalizing simply ensures that the LOUDEST PEAK in each track is at the same level.
- Really generally: Use compression to reduce the dynamics of your music (i.e. raise the quiet parts and lower the loud parts), and limiting to make everything louder (while ensuring the volume never exceeds a certain level.)
- Really generally: The task of mastering track levels involves figuring out the right combination of input volume, compression, and limiting to bring the average volume of each track to the same level.
- To guage the average volume you need to monitor the RMS level of each track rather than the peak level. (And of course, you need to use your ears.) Most digital meters show peak level by default, but your software should have an option for changing the behaviour of the meter.
- A lot of mastering engineers aim for a track level of -12dBFS RMS. Oversimplified, this means the average level of each track hovers about 12dB below the LOUDEST sound that your system can produce. One way of accomplishing this is to use the tracks gain fader to bring the RMS level near -12dB, and slap a limiter on the track to ensure that nothing clips (i.e. peaks over 0dB)

Here are some primers that might help:
Understanding power: http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/amppower.htm
Using meters: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun00/a ... etring.htm
Compression and limiting: http://www.drawmer.com/help4.html
Simple mastering with screen shots: http://www.har-bal.com/mastering_process.php

vintage warmer is multiband compression, so i would put that last. in fact it may be all you need on your master pair. but throw in a limiter before it if you're having trouble staying out of the red. i use logic, so i usually have the ad-limiter before the multipressor (the latter of which many people are quite down on, and though i don't have anything to compare it to i plan to replace it with the vintage warmer eventually). nevermind the normalizing; it doesn't really gain you anything, no pun intended. and i never use verb on my master pair, but if it sounds good to you then knock yourself out.

edit: crossposted with des, who obviously has a good handle on the situation.

Thank you guys so much! I love this forum, haha.
I'll do some reading tonight and see if I can't get this worked out.