what level to record at into Audition?

[canadave]

Hi all,

Bear with me here, as I know this has to be a basic basic question for you radio pros For us amateurs volunteering at small community radio stations, it's tricky.

We record commercials into Adobe Audition CS6 through our Audioarts broadcast console. Obviously we have to set the input mic levels on the board before we do this. Sooo the enormously newbie question is: how do we know what is the correct level to set the input slider at? There's the analog VU meters on the board, and then there's the digital db meter in Audition.

As a corollary...how "high" should the peaks of the displayed recorded audio in Audition be?

Thanks, I know this has got to be the easiest question ever asked here probably...

 

[surfdude]

-9 to -6 on the Adobe meters is fine. It's not critical, just don't clip them (go into the red).

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Next question, canadave: Have you mastered the art of taking an audio file in Audition, and changing it's level. The simple way is to NORMALIZE but if your content has a lot of dynamic range, or has just one or two very loud peaks, NORMALIZE leaves a lot to be desired.

Those of us who have worked with audio through the years always way our audio to be just as loud as possible to stay above whatever constant residual noise there is in the room or the electrical noise of your input system (mixer/preamps). If these noises are not a problem, it is a wonderful sense of freedom to be able to record even lower than the -6 to -9 range and then bring it up to the desired level during editing. And yes, -6 to -9 is a great target level because it still gives some room for the "wild hare" peak from nowhere that comes along now and then.

If there are multiple people making recordings (and maybe using their own systems which ends up being "multiple systems" at work), then you will want to come to agreements what the finished product levels will be after editing. If every recording made has a different level, that can make every recording have a less-than-graceful beginning (if live operators are on duty and running a board) or entire programs that are less-than-graceful if these recordings are being played back on automation and totally dependent on whatever compressors, limiters, etc. your station is using.

One of the things I have used in Audition to balance various segments is to use the AMPLITUDE STATISTICS screen and grab the value of the "Average RMS" of segments and adjust the gain of the segments so they match. You can NORMALIZE segments recorded by various voices and find that they don't SOUND the same in loudness. Some voices have "wild peaks" compared to other voices.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

canadave: tell us which version of Audition you are using. Some of my favorite tools vary from one version to another of Audition.

 

[canadave]

canadave: tell us which version of Audition you are using. Some of my favorite tools vary from one version to another of Audition.

We're using CS6.

I'd actually be really interested to learn what workflows various people here use. We here at our tiny community radio station basically just record the audio from the voice talent's microphone, get it into our music software database, then normalize it there. I've just started putting the multiband compressor on the master track, though. It's a start

Speaking of which, is there any way to open a new audio file in the Edit window in Audition and have it load up a template? Like, for instance, where the master track already has a couple of plugins on it? I have to go play with that a bit.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I'd actually be really interested to learn what workflows various people here use.

We record the audio from the voice talent's microphone, get it into our music software database, then normalize it there.

What you are writing is clear to you because you know what you are thinking about when you wrote it. We don't know what you were thinking that got left out of the post. ;D

When you say you "get it into the music software database, then normalize it there" do you mean you save it in the music database FROM Audition and now you are out of audition and some other software in the database does the normalizing?"

I've just started putting the multiband compressor on the master track, though.

Define "master track". Are you talking about the original recording that is still in Audition and you are using the multi-band compressor of Audition, or is the master track a term for a file in the music data base and your automation system is doing a multi-band compression?

Speaking of which, is there any way to open a new audio file in the Edit window in Audition and have it load up a template? Like, for instance, where the master track already has a couple of plugins on it? I have to go play with that a bit.

I guess you are asking the question I ponder at times. I almost never, never, never use the MULTI TRACK "Window". I am assuming that "effects" can be at work while making the original recording in MULTI TRACK but not in the EDIT "Window". Maybe someone can bring me out of the dark on this topic.

I also look forward to some other people sharing some of their "work flow" ideas.

I never normalize until I have some of the mountains and valleys evened out a bit. Take some of the extreme dynamics out. I have some FAVORITES recorded that take an EFFECT (EFFECTS > AMPLITUDE & COMPRESSION > GAIN ENVELOPE(Process)... and create an envelope that humps up in the middle, or valleys down in the middle. I can now SELECT one really low syllable in the EDIT window and knock it down 2 DB at a time until it is "a good neighbor" in the dynamics of the audio around it. If I have recorded a speech, lecture or sermon and there is a quiet place where the speech level slopes down for two or three minutes and then gently comes back up, I can select that 5 or 6 minutes and bump it up a couple of DB at a time until it fits in with the over all level. After I have manually cleaned up a few extreme highs and lows, I am ready to trust a compressor, a limiter, an expansion or a multi-band processor setting to process the entire file.