Re: [LAU] Ardour: exporting woes

On Mon, 21 Mar 2016 21:00:23 +0000
Fons Adriaensen <fons@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> The normalisation will not really modify the mix or the dynamics.
> It just adds some gain so the level is the maximum that the export
> file format can handle without clipping.
>
> In other words, it should sound just the same after you adjust
> (reduce) the volume.
>
> Now if playing back the normalised file results in clipping
> or distortion, that means that either your sound card can't
> handle full digital level, or you have too much gain after
> the soundcard.

I see. I will experiment further. The sound card DAC levels are at
0dB. Set by the mudita24 utility for the 1010LT card. One thing you
mentioned is to lower down the volume after an export with
normalization, whereas I expected to be the same as what I have mixed.

Also the recording levels are barely reaching -24dB. This might be too
low. One Harrison tutorial, one gain staging I think, mentions that
with DAWs it is preferable to record at a lower volume, like -15dB, and
then to enlarge the waveforms in the DAW.

It might that the problem I have heard with normalization in this soft
piece is due to having a too low amplitude in the waveforms to start
with. I will try to remix by first adding gain to all the waveforms, in
respect to each other, so that they reach a higher gain.

> If the CD has both pieces that should be loud and others like yours
> that are meant to be softer, then you did the right thing. But it all
> depends on what the listener wants - many will want a constant level
> regardless of any artistic intentions.

My main objective would be for the listener to not have to adjust the
volume for the different dynamics, a tranquil piece being naturally
softer in dynamic terms. There are many examples out there of softer
pieces on otherwise dynamic CDs that nevertheless gets across without
having to reach for the volume knob. This is what I would like to have.

> Your track has quite a low level, even if it is intended to be soft.
> Ebumeter says the loudness is -3.7 LU. That's relative to an already
> low referenc value of -23 dB. Still that's probably OK iff any other
> tracks it is bundled with are also mixed to a well defined loudness
> instead of maximum peak level.

Makes sense. In this respect having the LU values when exporting can
act as a reference, I presume.
 
> It's a real shame that Ardour only offers peak normalisation. Peak
> level has no perceptual meaning at all, there is really no reason
> why a mix should ever be peak-normalised.

In all the articles I read and videos I've seen on mixing so far,
there was no attention given to normalization when exporting, in
otherwise detailed articles. Is this extra processing something that
all DAWs are doing by default and taken for granted ?

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Received on Thu Mar 24 16:15:03 2016