Topic: Widly Varying Levels - What To Do?

[jamroom]

Hi folks - I wasn't sure where to post this, so here goes...

I taped a local electronica artist - Frog Pocket - last night. It was a small club with a low ceiling and everything went through the PA. I had set an initial level when the DJs were on, but due to the nature of the music and equipment, the first song started at a medium volume, then about a third of the way through, he let rip with the sample machine and a breakbeat loop which sent the level into clipping. I got this tamed, but  feel that a proportion of the set could do with the volume boosted, though there are a few songs where there are some severe spikes due to his volume levels for certain bits of kit, or feedback.

I'm currently listening through cans and like the sound, but not sure whether to leave it "as is", or to do something. Would this just create a "false" sound? As this is only my second tape - I'm definitely a n00b here and would appreciated some experienced advice.

I can see that rock bands are far easier to set levels for and leave for the duration of the gig.

Thanks guys!

EDIT - I notice that the LH channel is consistently slightly quieter than the RH channel. I presume this is simple to correct in post?

[Nick's Picks]

you can bump the left channel up a few db to match the other.  try it..., and just eyeball the wav forms and see that they peak around the same and look to be as even as possible.

as far as the overs...., cant fix those.
Sounds like the music was very dynamic...lots of room between the quiet parts and the loudest parts.
thats a good thing.  you dont want to ruin that by trying to make things even.  they were not even to begin with (the performance).

play it in the car
play it on the headphones
play it on the main stereo at home.

if it sounds good...then well done.
if not...better luck next time.

[boojum]

Remember the levels you set to after he raised his volume way up.  Use them in the future.  You can always raise the levels in post, but clipping is forever.

[jamroom]

you can bump the left channel up a few db to match the other.  try it..., and just eyeball the wav forms and see that they peak around the same and look to be as even as possible.

as far as the overs...., cant fix those.
Sounds like the music was very dynamics...lots of room between the quiet parts and the loudest parts.
thats a good thing.  you dont want to ruin that by trying to make things even.  they were not even to begin with (the performance).

Thanks guys. +T for the advice (now that I can do such things)

I'll have a go at matching the L/R volume.

That's the word I was looking for - dynamic. As I mentioned, the sample box had a far louder volume than anything else, which was a pity for the settings. There were a few songs that were much quieter than the rest - I guess that was the ones I was thinking about. I'll burn it and have another listen from cd.

I noted that when I made my first (rock) recording, I used 12 on the R09 and roughly 11 o'clock on the 9100. I realised this time that with the same setting on the R09, even max on the 9100 wouldn't get high enough levels, so I set the R09 to 18 and I think the 9100 was 2/3 o'clock. When the 9100 started clipping, I quickly wound that back some, but left the R09 at 18 (obviously). All part of the learning curve I guess.

Big rock gigs - R09 at 12 (-ish) at the 9100 at 11 o'clock - then adjust to suit. I'll keep learning for other settings / types of music. I guess you eventually get a feeling for what's right.


BTW Nick, I'm more than happy with the quality cables. Thanks mate.

[Nick's Picks]

:-)
+t

[powermonkey]

I had a similar issue a while back. Taped a fellow called David Ford - brilliant singer and songwriter who uses lots of looping to build soungs up and all that good stuff.

Anyhoo, first song he did was loud as hell, at least compared to the rest of the show. I managed to avoid clipping during the first tune, but then the rest was very quiet. Wasn't really thinking straight, as it was my 5th night out at gigs in a row, so I figured I'd just leave everything and fix it in mastering.

It took a bit of time, but in the end I boosted the rest of the show enough that it's listenable, anyway. Not good enough to put on dime, or anywhere else, mind you. Don't even get me started on the, erm, 128k mp3 board recording I matrixed it with.

 

Still sounds great, but I suspect that's only because I was there and I loved it. Anyone else who listens to it might feel differently.

[jamroom]

Yeah, the sound quality is important for a live tape, but doesn't really matter tooooo much if you were at the gig. I have some really dodgy sounding downloads of shows I was at in the past, but as I was there, it's the memory that matters.