The Logic Off Topic list

Originally, the reason I considered 'Normalizing' is because I find
that the audio files I bring from Logic into Live seem much quieter than
the samples from commercial kits.  So to compensate I would have to
increase the gain for each of my own samples, a bit time consuming. 
         Any ideas about a quick and efficient way to maximize the
overall quality and level of many short audio files so that they compare to
commercially available sample libraries?  I guess the best way is to
compress each sound individually before it's recorded.


chems


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blue alien house inc.
http://www.galaxymall.com/site/bluealienhouse
an interstellar media-arts collective     
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--- In logic-ot@y..., blue alien <bluehaus@g...> wrote:
>        Originally, the reason I considered 'Normalizing' is because 
I find
> that the audio files I bring from Logic into Live seem much quieter 
than
> the samples from commercial kits.  So to compensate I would have to
> increase the gain for each of my own samples, a bit time consuming. 
>          Any ideas about a quick and efficient way to maximize the
> overall quality and level of many short audio files so that they 
compare to
> commercially available sample libraries?  I guess the best way is to
> compress each sound individually before it's recorded.

Compression is the best way to do what you're after IMO. In some 
cases I have had some luck setting up a batch that will apply 
compression to a large number of files. This can't be done in logic 
though - you'd have to use a dedicated sample editor; I've had good 
experience doing this in Cool Edit Pro (windows), and have seen the 
same feature in Peak (mac), though I haven't tried it on the mac yet. 
This way you can set up good compression settings, start the 
batchprocessing, make a fresh cup of coffee, and return to the 
computer when it's finished processing. The backdraw to this is, that 
you will apply the exact same compression to all the files, so you 
have to be sure that they are so much alike, that this wont be a 
problem. Also, always make backup of the files first. You never know, 
when listening to the compressed samples afterwards, when you will 
suddenly find that one of the samples have been destroyed by the 
process, rather than enhanced, and so it is nice to know you can 
always redo the compression on that particular sample.

regards

monsdrum

Blue Alien wrote:

> > > Originally, the reason I considered 'Normalizing' is because
> > > I find that the audio files I bring from Logic into Live seem much
> > > quieter than
> > the samples from commercial kits.  So to compensate I would have to
> > increase the gain for each of my own samples, a bit time consuming.
> >          Any ideas about a quick and efficient way to maximize the
> > overall quality and level of many short audio files so that they
>compare to
> > commercially available sample libraries?  I guess the best way is to
> > compress each sound individually before it's recorded.

Well ... I don't know how much it will help but Sound Forge has a nifty 
normalization feature which works on RMS rather than peak. It's pretty good 
for bringing all the songs you wish to work with into line dynamically.

I only had to deal with four files so it was quite straight forward. I just 
added them all in to the same file, and then normalized them there using 
RMS. This has the advantage of clipping off the loudest sound in your 
loudest file, while still raising the dynamic levels of the quiet parts so 
that, generally, they are all in line with each other. Having done that, I 
then cut the files back up again and I once more had my three originals.

This is fine if you've got half a dozen files or less, but I would hate to 
have to treat 60 like that!! Presumably, one could design some sort of 
batch file that would first examine the levels in each one, present one 
with some options, and then process each one accordingly.

I have, however, found the SF RMS normalization very useful.

Kool Musick
Keep Musick Kool


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