Normalising at -3db

[MrPaullight19635CB6]

Hi all 

I have been ripping CDRs recently and normalizing them to -3db via Audition. On the whole I'm quite happy with the playback results. Once and a while a song comes along and only achieves the -3db level in a couple of places (maybe a hit of a cymbal) making the overall sound of that song sound quieter to the other songs on that particular CDR.

Apart from going into 'Amplify' and adding 1 or maybe 2 dbs to that particular song to give it a boost, is there any other way to get around this? I've added an attachment to clarify my problem.

Thanks in advance if somebody can assist me with this dilemma.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

I'm assumimg that these are commercial CDs. If they are, then the chances are that they will have been mastered so that there's a consistent sound across the CD. And you do this by considering all of the tracks together, not just individual ones. So if you want to normalize tracks like that, then select the whole album and normalize it in one go. That will find the peak value across all of the tracks and shift the whole album, retaining the relative inter-track dynamics - which is presumably what the producer wanted.

Of course if you don't like that, and want everything at a higher volume (some people do this for cars) then you need to use effects like the Hard Limiter (probably on one of its softer settings) or probably better, the Multiband compressor, which has a number of presets you can use as a starting point.

[MrPaullight19635CB6]

Thanks for your reply Steve.

The CDRs I am ripping consist of songs from all different commercial CDs, a 20 song compilation I am ripping may contain no 2 songs from the same CD. I have added 3db to enhance the sound of the 'quiet' song and I have added an attachment to show this. By doing this the overall volume of the song is similar to that of the other songs on the compilation. The spikes go beyond the -3db in places but bear in mind they are only snare or cymbal strikes and don't stick out like a sore thumb.

How do radio stations achieve constant sound levels? I don't suppose its achievable using Audition?

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Vitually all major broadcasters (inc  TV) use either Orban Optimods, or something similar. Basically it's the clever version of a multiband compressor, and fortunately Audition has something that can achieve similar results (although it's definitely not the same...). Anyway, f you've got tracks from different CDs, and you want similar levels from all of them, then you need to look at Audition's Match Loudness System. This involves dropping all the tracks you want into its media cache, selecting a suitable setting and applying that - although you may have to try several presets and adjustments before you're happy with the result. It can alter the levels of tracks, and put the resulting tracks into a new directory. It also has a few other features, like Match to File - you need to explore it though to get acceptable results.