Subject:Overall level more than 0dB...

Posted by: 3rik

Date:2/6/2008 11:01:51 AM

Hi all,
I've noticed that when I use effects like pitch shift or dynamics, the overall level is louder than zero bD (while playing a song for example, as preview)

Can someone explain me why ?

Thanks in advance,

3rik

P.S. : I hope you'll see what I mean, my english is not that good ;)

Subject:RE: Overall level more than 0dB...

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/6/2008 11:23:30 AM

It's very possible for audio amplitude (volume) to be increased a bit due to the nature of plugins and audio processing.

What you want to do, is have some headroom on your audio before you apply some effects. I'm guessing you're normalising your audio before you apply these effects(?). If so - normalise to a lower level - eg "-2dB" of something - this will allow some room for the effects to work and not cause a digital over.

Subject:RE: Overall level more than 0dB...

Reply by: 3rik

Date:2/6/2008 3:07:04 PM

Thanks,
So I guess I will always have to normalize to -2dB before applying some effects, in this way I'll get no clipping.

3rik

Subject:RE: Overall level more than 0dB...

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:2/6/2008 3:13:28 PM

Yes.

A good working method for you could be:
normalise to -2dB, process/effects/edit, then normalise again, to near max (I personally never normalise to 0.0dB).

That should leave you with good audio, that ends up with a good high level.

Hope that helps

Subject:RE: Overall level more than 0dB...

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:2/6/2008 6:58:25 PM

Note that many of the effects and filters have gain controls right within them. If changing the EQ curve puts your peaks over 0dB then turn down the gain right there in EQ. This means that you'll perform fewer processing steps, and fewer processing steps preserves the original quality of the sound better.