Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER Q&A, Tips, Tricks and Howto

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-25-2018, 06:46 AM   #1
chumbo
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Posts: 704
Default How to raise low levels without affecting higher ones in a file?

I found some old tapes of recordings I did a looong time ago and a few have one instrument that is completely burying the rest of the mix, because that mix was way to low to start with, i.e. a guitar solo and you can barely hear the backing track!

How would you go about balancing those levels so that both are equally audible? Ideally only raising the low level, without affecting too much the higher levels.
I'm not very good with a compressor so maybe that's the way to go but in my case, I couldn't produce the result I wanted. It sounded squashed and it didn't really raise the low level that much.

Any techniques, plugins, tricks you recommend?
chumbo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2018, 08:38 AM   #2
Byron Dickens
Human being with feelings
 
Byron Dickens's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 54
Default

Unless they are multitrack recordings wirh the offending instrument by itself, I am afraid you are out of luck.
Byron Dickens is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2018, 08:44 AM   #3
chumbo
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Posts: 704
Default

I'm not sure what you mean by multitrack recording? Do you mean like multiple files with the different audio on each, e.g. guitar solo on one and backing on another?

Errr...anyone can figure that one out.
I'm taking about a single file with a 'backing track'/music bed which is much too low compared to a lead guitar (and in case anyone would ask, no I'm not so lucky as to have them panned hard L & R).
I'm not so sure it can't be done...we'll see if anyone else has some ideas.
Thanks anyway,
chumbo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2018, 10:31 AM   #4
slipstick
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: UK, near Europe
Posts: 878
Default

Unless the "too loud" part is playing in a different frequency range from the "too quiet" part there's very little you can do about it. If you had a piccolo solo and the backing track with just basses and cellos then some selective EQing would probably help.

But where the loud instrument is playing in the same general range as the rest then you're pretty much out of options.

Steve
slipstick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2018, 10:37 AM   #5
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,557
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by chumbo View Post
I found some old tapes of recordings I did a looong time ago and a few have one instrument that is completely burying the rest of the mix, because that mix was way to low to start with, i.e. a guitar solo and you can barely hear the backing track!

How would you go about balancing those levels so that both are equally audible? Ideally only raising the low level, without affecting too much the higher levels.
I'm not very good with a compressor so maybe that's the way to go but in my case, I couldn't produce the result I wanted. It sounded squashed and it didn't really raise the low level that much.

Any techniques, plugins, tricks you recommend?
Duplicate the track in question (this "track" might be a whole mix).

On one, bludgeon the offending dynamic content however needed to focus on the rest of the program instead.

On the other, focus on preserving the dynamic bits cleanly. (This may mean doing nothing.)

Mix.

This might open up more possibilities if a multiband comp wasn't letting you get your hands on things enough. You'll at least be able to get away with something.

PS. For parallel processing like this, always make sure you know any of the plugins you use handle PDC correctly and/or you know the offset so you keep everything locked in phase.
serr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-25-2018, 06:10 PM   #6
Byron Dickens
Human being with feelings
 
Byron Dickens's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 54
Default

Basically, you can't unbake a cake.
Byron Dickens is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-26-2018, 12:09 AM   #7
Philbo King
Human being with feelings
 
Philbo King's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 3,201
Default

The General Dynamics plugin might be useful.

Preview the quiet stuff and watch for min & max levels. Draw a line to change how sounds in that amplitude range are changed. For example, if the background sound is from -36 to -20 dB, you can alter just that range so it will come out at -16 to 0 dB. And it will leave any louder sounds untouched (unless of course you change them with another line).

The horizontal scale represents the incoming sound, the vertical scale is the output sound. So, for the example above, you would draw a line from (x,y) -36,-16 to -20, 0. One thing I wish this plugin had is cursor readouts; that would be super handy for this sort of work.

Because you can bring extremely quiet stuff into an extremely loud state, I highly recommended you mute the Main track routinely before hitting play until you can verify it's not trying to output +42 dB or something into your playback system. At least until you get familiar with how it works.
Philbo King is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:54 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.