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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: dyneq on November 26, 2019, 11:30:56 AM
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My mics were DFC between the stacks about 25' back from the stage, and I used a rough PAS with a narrow spacing (~2" @ 120*) >:D. At the time, I could tell that the right stack was louder. Looking at the waveforms in Audacity, you can see that the right channel looks more saturated vs. the left channel (no clipping, just capturing more sound energy). Listening back, the right side is, as you'd expect, dominant.
What's the best way to balance things out so listeners receive a more equal balance of the entire spectrum? I'm looking for ideas on how best to dial in the perceived balance. I've tried normalizing with the box checked to do each channel independently and amplifying each track separately to 0.0dB. Both still have a lot more sound energy from the right side.
I can upload a sample if anyone's interested in taking a closer look.
(https://user.fm/files/v2-b7c57f3be4a0ea70fd0783594cad9a8a/unbalanced.JPG)
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In audacity you can split the track pair to left and right (see example one), and apply negative or positive gain per channel (see example 2).
Audacity uses the ever non-mac-like HIDDEN TRIANGLE MENU on the tracks.
As long as the track is given enough vertical space, the left side of each track will have a slider marked cryptically with graphics (better shown in example 2) like my lousy ASCII imitation:
"- -----V----- +"
That's the channel gain. I have experienced crashes trying to set gain to non-integers. YMMV, I use v 2.1.0
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Precisely. Split the stereo track and then adjust gain to the track as necessary.
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Precisely. Split the stereo track and then adjust gain to the track as necessary.
If you want to adjust by peaks, you can do it this way:
Once the tracks are split as in example 2, you can use the Amplify plugin to determine maximum peak for each track.
Select a single track (or any region you choose) and go to Effect > Amplify
The number shown in the "Amplification" box represents how much gain the plugin would require in order to make that signal be 0 dB full-scale.
The maximum gain for the amplify plugin is something like +40 dB, so if it reads that it would add +40 dB, it might need more than that, but that's REALLY REALLY low.
Anyhow, if you use this to measure each channel, but click CANCEL without invoking the Amplify function, you'll get a baseline as to how much you might try boosting.
Frankly, headphones are the real test.
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Thank you both, I will give this a try.
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Adding a little bit of gentle compression after getting the gain where you want it helps to smooth things out. I use Waves L3 Ultramaximizer with very conservative settings.
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You can also tweak the channel panning to smooth things out. Try 80% or 90% instead of 100% left and right.
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I calculated average RMS power for both channels. Then I amplified the quieter channel to match the louder channel’s power. I am happy with the results and will add it to my workflow.
Thanks to all who responded.
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I calculated average RMS power for both channels. Then I amplified the quieter channel to match the louder channel’s power. I am happy with the results and will add it to my workflow.
That's a super good idea. Set levels based on RMS, then gain & limit as normal!
:headphones: :guitarist: :headphones:
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Question:
What about using normalize, with normalize each channel independently turned on? Perhaps that'd only get the peaks equal, not RMS?
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Question:
What about using normalize, with normalize each channel independently turned on? Perhaps that'd only get the peaks equal, not RMS?
Yes, that's correct, and why balancing channel gains by ear (or RMS, which is a roughly equivalent perceptual measure to "by ear") is the way to go to achieve good balance "as heard". Balancing by RMS will usually works well, unless there is supposed to be more energy to one side than the other and you wish to retain that original image balance- like maybe an on-stage recording with the bass or drums positioned over on one side rather than being in the center.
BTW, a good quick headphone double-check for balance is to take the phones off and flip them around so that the left-side driver is on the right ear and vice-versa, or flip L/R to your monitor speakers if you can do that easily. If your source is well balanced the stereo image will be mirror-image flipped as one would expect, yet the center image stuff like vocals should remain in the center.. assuming the signal chain though the drivers, and your hearing sensitivity is evenly balanced from side to side.
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Just pan it towards the left until it feels balanced. Essentially the same operation as splitting and changing channel gain
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assuming ...your hearing sensitivity is evenly balanced from side to side.
^yup. (mine is not. Calibrate appropriately)