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romantic_Twinkle16B7
Participating Frequently
May 8, 2018
Question

Normalizing Many Multitracks..

  • May 8, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 5603 views

Hi All,

I'm a pro musician in a touring cover band duo. I recently took on the role of producing all the audio track backings we use in most of our songs, and I'm using Adobe Audition CS6 to do it. So in my case, I have about 40 songs that my duo partner and I play.. I start with the full backing tracks downloaded in multitrack format from Karaoke Version - so each song has say 15 stereo tracks (drums, bass gt, keyboards, lead vocals etc...). While the recording quality and muso performances were I guess reasonable in most of the tracks, most of the tracks haven't been mixed together all that well. I want to run about 20 songs into each other, to end up with say, a one-hour non-stop track that we can play when we gig.


What I want to know is:

Bearing in mind that each multitracked song's tracks levels and gains aren't mixed all that well, what order of operations would you suggest I do things in to fix all the track levels etc of these 20 multitracks, so that each song sits perfectly against the next one it runs into? I don't want to be riding faders on the mixer when we perform.

Should I just normalise each individual instrument track to (say) -6Db first? (I need it lower than 0Db, as when we add our live stuff in, we end up peaking). Then once all the individual tracks are normalised to -6Db, just tack the full songs all together in whatever arrangement I want?

Thanks very much.

Stu

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1 reply

SteveG_AudioMasters_
Community Expert
SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
Community Expert
May 8, 2018

The basic principle is quite simple; you need to get all the individual multitrack arrangements balanced the way you'd like first, otherwise the level matching results will be more variable than you'd want. You also need to make sure that the mixdowns are all 32-bit, so the actual level of them doesn't matter (32-bit mixdowns have almost infinite headroom). Then you have to select the 'match volume' window, and drop all the mixdowns into it. Select the loudness contour you want to use (you may need to experiment a bit with these) and then run it - your recordings will then be adjusted to suit that setting.

If the tracks are all fairly similar, I'd initially go for the ITU setting, but it's easy enough to undo what you've done and try another. If you use the ITU setting, then for a mix tape, I'd be inclined to drop the target level to between -15 and -20 LUFS, just to keep the file levels sensible. When you're happy, just save the files. At this point you should be able to do an Open>Append and put them in whatever order you want, and they should flow into each other without any particularly noticeable level shifts. Or, you could dump them all back into another multitrack session and do the same thing there - doesn't matter which.

    R
    romantic_Twinkle16B7Author
    Participating Frequently
    May 8, 2018

    Thanks so much Steve.. that's such an incredibly coherent response, and I do get most of it.. but could I just clarify:

    "you need to get all the individual multitrack arrangements balanced the way you'd like first" - does this mean I need to take the downloaded 15-multitracked instruments (guitars, drums etc) for just one song, and then load that up specifically as a multitrack file, or take them in as 15 separate mp3 files? I'm not great with many aspects of Audition, but I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly. In other words - I have these 20 songs, which are all multitracked in their own folders as downloads.. do I need to balance the gains (or levels??) of only one song at a time - do I do this specifically in an Audition "multitrack"? If so, when done, do I then export it out as something (presumably not a stereo mp3 file cos I need to have multitracks on stage - for musicians who may or may not be playing on the night).. do that to all 20 songs - then re-load them all back in as some kind of finished song format - and then volume match all the songs?

    God, sorry to be such a knucklehead. Jack of all trades, master of absolutely none..! :-(

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 9, 2018

    Hmm............

    There's no getting around the fact that if you want several multi-track backings to play at consistent levels, you'll have to mix them sensibly in the first place so that they sound consistent in themselves. And unfortunately, you can only do volume matching on completed tracks - so even if you go back to the multi-track to play this back, you'd need to know what the volume leveler made of the mixed output - if you see what I mean. This could be time-consuming...

    The other way you might approach the issue is to think about the levels of individual instruments in each mix, and then consider that if you had the same instrument live on stage, that it would very likely be playing at a similar level on different tracks. Well that's been my experience of bands, anyway! On this basis, it should be possible to set up 'generic' mix levels for each different instrument that you can apply to any mix - and then apply this across all of your tracks. Yes it's going to be slightly hit and miss, but I don't think it will be far out.

    So if, for instance, you have bass and drum track levels the same in each song, then for each one you play back, you wouldn't have to alter the playback level. All you need to do is extend this to other tracks, and you'll have a workable solution I think. All you need to do for each of the other songs is add the other instruments so that they sound balanced against the rhythm section in each case.

    There are all sorts of other things you can do, but they tend to make the results sound more 'artificial'. So, for instance, if you can avoid slapping a limiter on every single instrument, that would be a good thing - unless of course that's the sound you're going for.

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