Topic: Help a noob fix up her Avett Bros tape

[TandJam]

I'm a newbie taper (still).  I usually keep it very simple with my tapes, either doing nothing at all to them or at most maybe using audacity to add some gain and/or normalizing and that's it.

Last night I recorded the Avett Brothers from the front row of the balcony at the Fox Theater in Oakland, 24 bit, SP-CMC-20>SP-SPSB-9>Edirol R-09

I'm listening to it for the first time this morning and it sounds ok, but I'd like to 'pump it up' a bit...make it louder, richer  (sorry I don't know the technical terms).  But this time when I add gain, it distorts.  Why is this?  An suggestions?

Here's a sample...
https://www.box.net/shared/static/6smmfilhko.wav

[Jhurlbs81]

I checked it out.  Try compressing it a little bit if you want to "pump it up". 

[slightlys]

  I usually keep it very simple with my tapes, either doing nothing at all to them or at most maybe using audacity to add some gain and/or normalizing and that's it.
I'm listening to it for the first time this morning and it sounds ok, but I'd like to 'pump it up' a bit...make it louder, richer  (sorry I don't know the technical terms).  But this time when I add gain, it distorts.  Why is this?  An suggestions?

Have you tried Splitting your project in to the individual songs and then normalizing each track(song) separately?
The distortion might be caused by taking the gain above 0db in the mastering process.
If you normalize each song by itself and set the maximum level at 0db that should bring the loudest parts of each song to 0db.
this can help improve volume issues
Listening to the clip you provided it doesn't sound like your levels were to hot so this should help fix the issue.
hope that helps a little.

[TandJam]

I checked it out.  Try compressing it a little bit if you want to "pump it up". 

Thanks, Jesse.

I haven't used the compressor before...do you have thoughts on where I could start with setting the 'threshold,' 'ratio,' and 'attack time'? Any hints about what these things mean would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

[slightlys]

  I usually keep it very simple with my tapes, either doing nothing at all to them or at most maybe using audacity to add some gain and/or normalizing and that's it.
I'm listening to it for the first time this morning and it sounds ok, but I'd like to 'pump it up' a bit...make it louder, richer  (sorry I don't know the technical terms).  But this time when I add gain, it distorts.  Why is this?  An suggestions?

Have you tried Splitting your project in to the individual songs and then normalizing each track(song) separately?
The distortion might be caused by taking the gain above 0db in the mastering process.
If you normalize each song by itself and set the maximum level at 0db that should bring the loudest parts of each song to 0db.
this can help improve volume issues
Listening to the clip you provided it doesn't sound like your levels were to hot so this should help fix the issue.
hope that helps a little.

Nevermind I tried normalizing your clip and it did not work. I get to talk out my ass every once in a while 

[TandJam]

Thanks for trying, slightlys.  I really appreciate it.

[Jhurlbs81]

You'll have to experiment, but when I compress I typically set my threshold around -10db.  This is the point where the compressor kicks in.  I set my ratio to somewhere between 2-1 and 3-1.  You'll also have a gain control.  Try boosting your levels by 5-6db . 

There are no fixed setting for an audio compressor you'll have to play with it.  But if you have a recording where the dynamic range is great, a compressor can help even it out. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression

Good luck!

[TandJam]

Thanks Jesse. I'll mess around with it.  I also found some quick compressor info here: http://www.geeks.com/techtips/2006/techtips-10dec06.htm

 I thought that when recording in 24 bit you could record loud shows at low levels to avoid clipping and then boost with gain later with no problems.  Any idea why that didn't work this time?

[taperj]

I just normalized the clip to -0.5dB and gained ~2dB off of it, no distortion.

[TandJam]

I just normalized the clip to -0.5dB and gained ~2dB off of it, no distortion.

Humm.  ok.  I tried that and it worked ok.  I guess I was just going straight to gain and using too much of it.

Thanks.