USING AUDACITY TO BOOST YOUR MASTERED TRACKS

[KILLBEAR]

 Hello fellow BR-Users:

I currently record with a BR600, IBANEZ 7420 7 string guitar, Rogue 4 string bass and Audacity.

I noticed info on this forum on how to use Audacity to Normalize BR tracks and attain better levels than what usually can be attained with the BR recorders alone through mixing and mastering. I actually found what I believe is an even better method from youtube related to Audacity and attaining professional levels while avoiding clipping.

Having used this method for several songs now, I've gotten very good results along with another method for improving the quality of the Boss drums sounds (to be discussed in another post). And now for a concise bullet list of how to do this  

• Record you song tracks and mix and master on the BR RECORDER to desired tastes while being sure to leave enough headroom in order to avoid clipping. More track fader and less master seems to work better than the reverse here, but don't worry if your not pushing your levels because we're going to make up for that in Audacity. Focus on a great mix and good master for now.
  Next, transfer your mastered BR SONG to your computer by Wav.file transfer via USB
  Then import your Wav.file into Audacity.
  Our first step is to sample a quiet section of the song in order to determine where it is peaking on the meter.
  Generally my rock guitar instrumentals peak around -8db in the quieter sections. Yours may be different.
  Take this number and select the entire track for effects.
  OPen up Audacity's Hard Limiter effect (newer versions of Audacity) and imput this number as your db limit
  When you apply the effect, you should see the louder peaks cut off...which is normal. Listen to the louder parts to make sure your sound quality is still there. You should be in good shape now to Amplify the entire track.
  Open up AMPLIFY in effects, having selected the whole track again. Set your New Peak Amplitude to -0.1db and apply.
  This will raise your entire track evenly to this limit just below 0db. Listen again and enjoy! Raises your track up to professional levels and maintains your mastered mix as well.
  
  Here is the
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=likk4fbEblg for this technique on Youtube.
  
  • 
    
    I'll follow up with how to get a great kick drum sound with Br and audacity
    KILLBEAR

[Blooby]

Your input is appreciated.  Welcome to the forum.

Blooby

[Rata-tat-tat]

Very nice... I've tried this a few times as well... but I didn't have it down to any sort of repeatability... Thanks for sharing. I will try this on my next recording.

[SteveB]

Your input is appreciated.  Welcome to the forum.

Blooby

+1

[KILLBEAR]

Thanks guys... hope this helps. One of my personal peeves has been the available kick drums on the BR600 and other boss recorders. I used to have a 532 and had the same problem. I'll post this helpful tip in a new topic...worked great for me.

KILLBEAR

[Farrell Jackson]

Thanks KILLBEAR for sharing this information. That is basically the process I use with Audacity to boost my mastered tracks volume level, minus the sampling of the quite part of the song. It was a trial and error process to learn this so it's cool to see it in writing which might save some folks new to the process some time and headaches.

Farrell

[KILLBEAR]

Thanks KILLBEAR for sharing this information. That is basically the process I use with Audacity to boost my mastered tracks volume level, minus the sampling of the quite part of the song. It was a trial and error process to learn this so it's cool to see it in writing which might save some folks new to the process some time and headaches.

Farrell

Definitely a headache when you're trying to push the meter for precious volume and keep coming back with clipping. This was one of those great tips you just find trolling Youtube or Forums when you're fed up and hoping someone shares a nugget of gold with everyone.

I modified the original post to include the original YOUTUBE video where I got this technique. Wear it out!

KILLBEAR

[64Guitars]

I would advise against using the Hard Limiter in this way. It causes clipping.

Here's a screenshot from Audacity which shows a sine wave in the first track and the same waveform after Hard Limiting of -6dB. Notice that the nice smooth sine wave with its gentle rounded peaks has become a square wave with clipped peaks, resulting in harsh distortion. That's what the Hard Limiter does. It clips the top of the waveform at the specified level.



I'd recommend compression instead. Here's the same sine wave before and after 6dB of compression.

[KILLBEAR]

Interesting, but I've not experienced any noticeable distortion...I did not experience any perceivable loss of sound quality from my BR600 mastered track either.

Certainly, you need to be careful how much you are using the limiter, but I've personally found it to be a great technique for the Heavy music I produce.

Just another method for experimentation where you have to be the judge. I've enjoyed the results I got from it though 

[KILLBEAR]

One thing I also noticed on the Wave illustration is that you hacked off 5db of the sound... I think the idea, as presented, is to only take off the peaks that limit how much you can amplify the track. That's why the video makes it clear that you should examine your track carefully after using the HARD LIMITER in order to be sure that you haven't degraded your track quality noticeably. Only then does he recommend proceeding to Amplify.

I believe the idea is to have a flatter wave so that you don't have such noticeable variations between quiet parts and loud parts... of course that may not be a desired outcome for some genres of music.

If I'm not mistaken, Compression can adversely effect your sound quality as well, when overused or improperly used. 
But I'm not expert on waveforms... I just know what sounds good to my own ears for what I enjoy listening to. 

-KILLBEAR