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K
kdoc2
Inspiring
August 3, 2017
Answered

Loudness and Clipping

  • August 3, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 6864 views

For a voice-over (narration) of a slideshow, once the audio clip has been edited initially, how is it best "finished" for acceptable loudness and avoidance of clipping or overly soft (inaudible) speech? Should I use Normalize and/or Hard Limit? Should I simply use a broadcast standard (even though I'm not broadcasting), such as in the Match Loudness for ATSC or ITU. Note that I don't know precisely which settings to choose, so please include exact recommendations.

If there is a written or video reference which answers these questions, I'm also willing to read or watch it/them.

Thank you

Keith

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer SteveG_AudioMasters_

    Two questions related to that:

    I only asked about that because Audition hinstruction seems to make a big thing out a final submix and Master, and i didn't know if that would help or was necessary.

    Regarding the music track. I note that Essential Sound doesn't do much with Music. No tweak of EQ or Compression. The music I was given to use needs at least to be increased in volume (perhaps Normalized to -3 or -2). Could you suggest a slightly more helpful approach if I feel the music sounds sub-par.


    kdoc2  wrote

    I only asked about that because Audition hinstruction seems to make a big thing out a final submix and Master, and i didn't know if that would help or was necessary.

    The thing about Audition is that it does a heck of a lot of things - and the chances are that for any given job, you won't have scratched the surface of it, so I don't really know why they picked out that bit in particular either. The reason for this is dead simple - no two audio jobs are ever the same! It's the same with EQ and compression - there's no absolute law says you have to use it - you make decisions based on what your ears tell you.

    There's nothing to stop you normalizing the music track to -2dB in Waveform view, and then doing the final level tweaks in Multi-track. I can't actually tell you specifically what to do, because I don't have access to your audio...

    Probably the clearest explanation of what to do with Essential Sound is here: Get started with audio mixing |

    It's intended for video editors who claim to have little knowledge of sound treatments, but the steps seem pretty easy to carry out.

    2 replies

    S
    ScooterVoice
    Participant
    February 22, 2023

    HELP!  I'm probably posting in the wrong place and apologize but . . .  My audio is clipping and becoming distorted in Audition at about -3dB.  Why is this happening?  I can't even get the audio to hit -1 or 0 unless I normalize, and then I'm detecting mild distortion on tracks normalized to -1.  It's almost like a setting, but I can't find the answer.  Please help.    

    ryclark
    ryclark
    Participating Frequently
    August 4, 2017

    Your final operation would be to Normalize your audio to a reasonable level, say around -3dB. However before that stage it is possible that a bit of Compression be used to reduce the dynamic range of the commentary. Try some of the Voicover presets from any of Audition's Compression effects.

    See also the last post in this thread Editing from start to finish help

    K
    kdoc2Author
    Inspiring
    August 4, 2017

    Thanks, I've kinda come to that too, without understanding all the nuances.

         1, Does one compress and reduce dynamic range first so that a normalization will give the quieter parts more volume after normalization?

         2. Do we use -3 db Normalization mainly because sound on other tracks might result  clipping?

         3. If there is NO audio when the narration is going on, would one use -1 or -2 db Normalization preferentially?

         4. Does one then finish off yet further with Match Loudness or Radar in order set ITU or ATSC levels, or isn't that necessary in a non broadcast production? Will either or both of these themselves take care of what compression is doing?

         5. I note, btw, that the Radar does not contain the ITU etc-1770 preset. Is the main advantage of Radar over Match Loudness that one can see if a part EVER becomes too soft or loud? (But then, without using Match Loudness, is there still fairly good matching?)

    I appreciate all comments

    kdoc

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 7, 2017

    One other question on this subject: I'll probably have only 2 audio tracks. What's the best or simplest way to finish it off with Mastering in Premier? Do I need or should i use a Sub mix, and if so, how (I know the name, but not the how to or exactly when or why) 'll be glad to watch a good video or read something else if you'd prefer to send a reference rather than answer in full.

    thank you

    keith


    For some reason people seem to think that 'Mastering' is going to impart some sort of magic into their productions that will suddenly lift them to a different level...

    I have to say that this is only true if there was something severely wrong with them in the first place!

    If you have two perfectly good tracks in place, and you want them to end up as a single track, then if they play together nicely, all you have to do is mix them down; the normal last stage in a multitrack session anyway. My suggestion would be to do the mix in Audition's multi-track view and export the final result back to Premiere - if you take care about this, it should be all you need to do.

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