Normalizing Many Multitracks..

Report · May 07, 2018

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

Report · May 08, 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.

Report · May 08, 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..! 😞

Report · May 09, 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.

Report · May 09, 2018

Thanks Steve.. yes, that was exactly the conundrum I had, but also what I figured you'd say. To mix all the songs' multitracks reasonably first off, would you think this would work?:

As I'll be mixing live while we're on stage, I'll have the ~15 instruments all on their unique channels on the mixing desk.. So to start, couldn't I just take, say, all 20 drum tracks into the volume matcher first, and then just ITU them down to say -20 LUFS, then the same with all 20 bass guitar tracks, and use those as a bed to then import all the guitar tracks and do the same to them, then same to all piano tracks, then strings etc etc.., so that eventually I've balanced all the songs' instrument tracks fairly evenly to say -20db, and make sure they sound about right together as balanced tracks. I could go from there then with arrangements?

Have I got the gyst of it, or am I way off completely? I was guessing about the ITU and -20 LUFS thing - no idea there!

Report · May 09, 2018

You could try that - but it's only going to work if my original surmise is correct about the relative balance... and it's not what I'd do.

The ideal solution is still to get the balance correct on each individual song and do a mix-down of it, which is what you use in the leveler. You'll then know, after it's run, how much each song has been shifted either up or down in level, and then all you have to do is adjust the master level for each track by the same amount, assuming that it's the master output that you're using (minus whichever tracks are being played live).

Report · May 09, 2018

Righto, thanks mate, I'll do that. Last question (hopefully!):

As you suggest, I'll balance all the tracks first and then go from there. When we play live though, I'll need to have all these backing tracks still as multitracks, and assign all the instruments to their correct instrument channels on a physical 32-channel mixing desk - all the bass guitars on the bass guitar channel, drums on a drum channel etc... So should I - in the first instance - get all the (say) bass guitar tracks, and somehow gain-balance all those bass gt parts to a certain Db level, so the bass guitar for 20 songs will be volumed/levelled reasonably well all the way? Ie normalise all the bass tracks to say -1Db or approximate something? Then rinse and repeat for all the other instruments? Sorry to bother you again - this must seem so basic.

Report · May 10, 2018

stum88023218 wrote
So should I - in the first instance - get all the (say) bass guitar tracks, and somehow gain-balance all those bass gt parts to a certain Db level, so the bass guitar for 20 songs will be volumed/levelled reasonably well all the way? Ie normalise all the bass tracks to say -1Db or approximate something? Then rinse and repeat for all the other instruments?

In general for a live performance, it makes sense for the rhythm parts to stay at a reasonably consistent level for different songs, yes. So it's worth making sure that both bass and drums don't really change much. With everything else, it's a bit moot - it rather depends upon the song, and what the parts are as to how you do this. So getting the bass and drums consistent on each track is a good starting point, and in many ways, just getting that right, and making every separate mix fit with that may be all you need to do, really - there won't be any need to alter anything else, because it will always be matched to the consistent rhythm levels.

Report · May 11, 2018

Thanks Steve. In that case - which Adobe Audition technique would you use to get the drum track/s and bass track/s levelled right? Would I just use normalising, on each one to the same point - say, normalise all to -0.1Db? (Or some other level you'd say is safer/better?). And then just apply the same normalisation target to all the other instruments, then mix it all? Or is normalisation not really right for purpose?

Report · May 11, 2018

To get the actual mix balance right, you can only use your ears! But if you want a starting point, then normalize the bass track to -1dB (assuming that it's a sensible bass track without levels all over the place) and then mix the drums to that. The only thing you'd need to worry about then is the amplitude of the kick - which usually peaks at around the 200Hz region. Don't let that get too high, although where it actually ends up is a bit material-dependent. But it's far more important to get it to sound right - the overall level is going to be predetermined by the bass track anyway.

Report · May 11, 2018

Thanks Steve. The drums are all just on a stereo mp3 track, unfortunately, in fact all the multitracked instruments are all just stereo mp3 tracks. But still, better than nothing even if I can't break the drum kit down into its intrinsic parts. But thanks for that.. I'll have a go, and aim to get the eventual levels all down to around -6db or so, as by the time I add in all the live singers etc, we'll be pushing 0db again!

Report · Jun 10, 2018

Hi again Steve. One quick qn: If I want to run multitracked backing tracks on stage, so I can always tweak eq settings on the fly for all instruments to suit whatever room acoustics we're dealing with, do you know of any pretty basic software mixers I can use? I did have a crack at using the Adobe Audition mixer, but it seems way too tiny/fiddly for live gig interaction while I'm meant to be playing guitar! Whatever I go with, it will also be triggering midi notation (for triggering our dmx-controlled light show) and auto switching the patches in my midi-controlled guitar effect board. Just wondered if you crossed over into this sort of stuff?

Report · Jun 10, 2018

What audio interface are you using for getting multitrack output out of Audition and how do you intend to mix all the outputs? I don't think that you will find any software mixer that won't be fiddly to operate on screen unless you have a large touch screen of some sort. The normal way to do this is to use a hardware fader MIDI controller to control either the mixer in Audition or the software mixer provided with your multichannel audio interface. The other method is to find a hardware mixer that also has a built in USB multichannel audio interface. Beware a lot of the lower priced ones only have basic stereo I/O over USB.

Report · Jun 10, 2018

ryclark wrote
The other method is to find a hardware mixer that also has a built in USB multichannel audio interface.

Also beware even more - there are plenty with multichannel channel outputs, but if you want multichannel returns, you're in much more expensive territory...