Multitrack quick "normalize" and EQ

Report · Jun 24, 2017

I have done lot of mixing in the Pr Pro audio mixer and familiar with live sound boards. I have worked with Audition only for specific quick fixes but find myself in there more one on one for live audio EQ and level setting and want to move to multitrack when using vs. Pr Pro round trips.

Using a zoom portable recorder and I just want to EQ and maximize levels without clipping before marrying to 4K audio in Pr Pro. I want to start working with multi track mode vs waveform ( always used with save as) mode.

I researched this and the closest I can find to Normalize is in match clip and amplitude. There are many options and I chose amplitude to minus 3db and of course the waveform does not change as that is the original file. How do I see what the amplitude analysis will do to my output File? Is this the closest to normalize? I know the waveform does not change....that is "as designed" but I want to see the expansion and where the new peaks are. It runs....and I see no confirmation or inkling on what it did.

And why doesn't the vertical on the original file waveform have a dB chart on it like in waveform?

Finally, after I apply my EQ, of course my levels will be a number of DB higher. Do I need to run a post EQ amplitude run to get to-3db again when I "export"? And again can I see the expected result?

On one hand I understand the logic of not changing the original file waveform but like a video source monitor and preview monitor, or audio flat feed vs processed, would like to see that waveform or some feedback.

Thanks,

BJBBJB1

Report · Jun 25, 2017

If you are working in the Multitrack view then you can just use the Track EQ to do your EQ and just use the Track level control to bring your audio level up to whatever you want to peak it to. Since it all happens in real time as you playback you can make your adjustments as you listen to the audio. Final audio level will show on the Master level meters. You can make all of these adjustments in the Mixer view which will be totally familiar to you like an analogue mixer. To be totally sure you keep levels within reason you could place a Limiter in the master track effects rack.

However having said all of that I find that often working on a video soundtrack of a live performance I will still stick to doing all the correction in the Waveform view. In that case, if there is a mixture of speech and music, a quick way to sort out the levels is to use the Speech Volume Leveler effect.

Report · Jun 25, 2017

Thanks for that. Other than making sure I am not crossing a specific dB threshold, in a lot of cases I am bringing UP levels to a specific amount. In waveform normalize does this automatically and I can see the peaks.

I get that final audio will show levels and I can play through the entire file and adjust....but it appears there is no way to see what a particular track level setting will do to the entire exported audio via a waveform so you can determine the correct track level? Live performance has a lot of peaks.

I would say you can use the original waveform and if the peaks are say -10db and I want them at -3db that adjustment to track gain is obvious. However as I mentioned in multitrack edit view I show NO dB vertical scale on the waveform so I can't even do that.

I was hoping to be able to save my EQ and tweaks in multitrack so if I need to tweak I can tweak from where I started. Oh well, if this is how it is I guess back to waveform.

Thanks,

BJBBJB1

Report · Jun 25, 2017

Well you can always drop back to the Waveform view to see where your peaks are and then adjust accordingly in Multitrack. However although there is no dB scale shown on each track you can still see from the waveform where the peaks are in the file.