What order for effects? -Sound Forge - PC - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:What order for effects? Posted by: ClipMan Date:2/11/2006 10:07:31 AM Hi, I'm doing some mono narration in SF and what sounds the best to me is adding a noise gate, tweaking the equalizer, tweaking the dynamics and normalizing. Can anyone tell me which order this should be done in for best results? TIA for any input .
Subject:RE: What order for effects? Reply by: simon_of_grin Date:2/17/2006 3:59:55 AM Hi, this is my first post in these forums. I guess there are a lot of people who have more experience and education than I do, but since no one has answered this post yet, I feel any input - even mine - might be useful. Think through what impact the effects that you want to apply will have on the original sound, and how one effect will leave the sound for the next effect to alter further. E.g. don't maximize the amplitude levels of a sound before you add EQ, because the EQ can increase the amplitude levels of certain parts of the sound that then already are maximized - causing these parts to clip and distort. Personally, I would add EQ first - because it brings forward the frequencies that you want to bring forward - whether if you would have added the EQ _after_ the noise gate, the places where these frequencies were present might have already been muted. Hence, you should add EQ before noise gate. As dealt with in the above paragraph, EQ also goes before maximizing amplitude levels (normalization). Then, if the normalization you are to apply is a simple peak level-sensitive normaliztion, I'd suggest you apply the normalization first (maximize the peak value), then the noise gate; it has an easier job now that the sound is "louder" - otherwise you will have a hard time tweaking the threshold values in order to NOT mute the parts that migth be low but you still want to preserve. Last, apply the normalization again (set to whatever level you prefer (not necessarily max peak value, that is)). However, if the normalization you are to use is an average RMS level-sensitive one, I suggest you add the noise gate and _then_ the RMS level normalization. It might be a good idea to apply a max peak value normalization first, for the reason give in the above paragraph. You speak about "tweaking the dynamics" which I don't understand because as far as I know noise gate and normalizing affect the dynamics, so if you've added these effects you've already "tweaked the dynamics". Tell me if I'm wrong, though - I might not know the difference between audio dynamics and regular amplitude levels. Hope this helps. And again - if anyone has corrections on my tips', don't hesitate to educate me.

Hi, this is my first post in these forums. I guess there are a lot of people who have more experience and education than I do, but since no one has answered this post yet, I feel any input - even mine - might be useful.

Think through what impact the effects that you want to apply will have on the original sound, and how one effect will leave the sound for the next effect to alter further. E.g. don't maximize the amplitude levels of a sound before you add EQ, because the EQ can increase the amplitude levels of certain parts of the sound that then already are maximized - causing these parts to clip and distort.

Personally, I would add EQ first - because it brings forward the frequencies that you want to bring forward - whether if you would have added the EQ _after_ the noise gate, the places where these frequencies were present might have already been muted. Hence, you should add EQ before noise gate. As dealt with in the above paragraph, EQ also goes before maximizing amplitude levels (normalization).

Then, if the normalization you are to apply is a simple peak level-sensitive normaliztion, I'd suggest you apply the normalization first (maximize the peak value), then the noise gate; it has an easier job now that the sound is "louder" - otherwise you will have a hard time tweaking the threshold values in order to NOT mute the parts that migth be low but you still want to preserve. Last, apply the normalization again (set to whatever level you prefer (not necessarily max peak value, that is)).

However, if the normalization you are to use is an average RMS level-sensitive one, I suggest you add the noise gate and _then_ the RMS level normalization. It might be a good idea to apply a max peak value normalization first, for the reason give in the above paragraph.

You speak about "tweaking the dynamics" which I don't understand because as far as I know noise gate and normalizing affect the dynamics, so if you've added these effects you've already "tweaked the dynamics". Tell me if I'm wrong, though - I might not know the difference between audio dynamics and regular amplitude levels.

Hope this helps. And again - if anyone has corrections on my tips', don't hesitate to educate me.