Subject:Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Posted by: talkshow

Date:1/14/2008 12:25:53 AM

Hi all,

New DJ here. I'm trying to come up with a decent system to bump up all the lows/mids/highs on MP3 club tracks which I get.

My DJ friend was showing me how to use Wavehammer to do this with the "Limit at 6 DB and maximize" option. I'm not sold on this, however. This also doesn't always bump the track up to just below "zero" DB so I find myself having executing an additional step of normalizing the track a few DB after with most tracks.

I'm almost a total noob with Sound Forge so would appreciate advice here so I can come up with an effective, standard procedure to make the tracks I get bump up to their most perfect level.

I've noticed a lot of talk here about the Mastering Effects Bundle/Limiter but I haven't played around with that yet.

Reccomendations?

Thanks in advance...

Subject:RE: Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:1/14/2008 3:22:19 AM

I assume you don't mean the usual EQ usage of "lows/mids/highs". If you want to increase the EQ level of the lows, mids, and highs then just turn up the volume control and you're done with it. But, assuming instead that you actually mean dynamics ...

Limiting at -6dB may not be doing much for you. Lots of music will have a dynamic range much larger than 6dB, and even music with less dynamic range may peak below -6dB. You really need to look at and listen to each track individually and find the limiting point that works for that track. If a track averages around -25dB and has peaks at -8 then limiting at -6dB won't do a thing to it. You'd probably want to be closer to -24dB instead.

There's an "auto gain compensation" checkbox. Do you have this checked? It should eliminate the need for normalizing as it does a normalize for you.

Subject:RE: Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/14/2008 5:36:37 AM

THe mastering effects bundle includes a multiband compressor - this will let you apply controllable compressors over a selection of the frequencies - and possible just ideal for what you describe - think of having 4 wavehammers at your disposal, with frequency adjustable parameters. Do check it out - iZotope stuff is amazing

Subject:RE: Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Reply by: talkshow

Date:1/14/2008 8:58:47 AM

thanks for the suggestions.

Can we take a step back? What does Limiting at -6 DB actually mean? I don't even know that.

What's the best process for me to discover the limiting point? How do I find the peaks and track averages?

thanks.

Subject:RE: Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/14/2008 9:44:08 AM

How do I find peaks and track averages?

Under tools: statisitics

You will find peak and rms values (look at both positive and negative sides ), or look in the normaliser plugin, and scan levels, or etc..

Limiting at -6dB, essentially means just that - you are putting a limit on that vaulue, and nothing will be allowed that is higher (-6 upwards to 0 - counting negative. 0 = max volume in the dB FS (full scale)))
Imagine, at the most basic, getting a chainsaw across all peaks at -6dB - that's kind of what the limiter is doing.
A compressor, on teh otherhand is more gentle, and squashes the peaks, in a more friendly way. Get settings too extreme, and the compressor acts like a limiter

Subject:RE: Wave Hammer/Mastering Effects Help

Reply by: owlsroost

Date:1/15/2008 2:44:35 AM

There is quite a useful guide to using the iZotope plug-ins here - http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/OzoneMasteringGuide.PDF - this is for the full Ozone product, the mastering plug-ins bundled with SF9 are cut-down versions but most of the info is relevant.

Tony