KVR Audio

computermusic500 · Post by **computermusic500** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:23 pm

Whenever I record audio into Live the track that I record it onto is at a good unclipping level while the output master track, shows that it is clipping. If all the tracks are in the green how is the master track in the red? Is there a fix for this? Thanks.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:10 pm

Their levels will accumulate, naturally! Dare to compare the volume of an orchestra with the volume of a quartet.

The orchestra isn't louder due to the individual musicians playing more loudly.

Greg

Peel · Post by **Peel** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:58 pm

No fix is necessary; just turn down the master volume until it's green. It doesn't make any difference in quality compared to turning down all the individual tracks.
If you don't want to move the master fader, you can put a compressor/limiter on your master bus to keep the levels near optimum.

computermusic500 · Post by **computermusic500** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:33 pm

Lunch Money wrote:Their levels will accumulate, naturally! Dare to compare the volume of an orchestra with the volume of a quartet. The orchestra isn't louder due to the individual musicians playing more loudly.

Greg

This is true, but it happens when I just have one audio track such as a guitar. I've been using a limiter on the master channel, naturally, but I thought it was kind of abnormal for one track pushing the master track over the edge.

computermusic500 · Post by **computermusic500** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:36 pm

...when working with multiple midi tracks, I've never had a problem of accumulated volumage!

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:46 pm

computermusic500 wrote:...when working with multiple midi tracks, I've never had a problem of accumulated volumage!

i presume your problem is when using audio , not midi, yeah?
so just turn your audio tracks down a bit ... problem solved.

computermusic500 · Post by **computermusic500** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:17 pm

thecontrolcentre wrote:
computermusic500 wrote:...when working with multiple midi tracks, I've never had a problem of accumulated volumage!
i presume your problem is when using audio , not midi, yeah?
so just turn your audio tracks down a bit ... problem solved.

I wish this would solve the problem. The audio is already pretty low in volume so lowering them even more would put them out of the mix.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:23 pm

I don't know what to say other than that some basic mixing theory is needed here.

The MIDI becomes audio, so the same problems of accumulated volume will occur.

Amplitude increases when frequencies are shared. It's not a "linear" or arithmatic increase. Having 2 tracks of the same base amplitude won't "double" the volume! That only happens if the two tracks are perfectly in phase with one another and playing the exact same information.

Whether mixing MIDI (which becomes audio), or pure audio, the same principles will apply.

Some tracks that seem "quiet" at first suddenly fit into the mix once the whole song takes shape. Don't believe me? Try setting your drum track with 'regular' peaks at around -9dBu. It'll seem quiet. But by the time you've added the tracks of a full song back into the mix, it'll be pretty close to correct.

Greg

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:31 pm

computermusic500 wrote:The audio is already pretty low in volume so lowering them even more would put them out of the mix.

if the audio on one track sounds low, it is probably because everything else is too loud. try turning everything down and then turn your monitors up a bit ... you shouldn't expect the volume coming out of Live to compare with the level of a mastered track.

No beef but a question