Brian Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I have this very large peak that needs to be attenuated, but I don't know where to begin. I believe a compressor is used for this purpose, any tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Depends on what is causing the peak. If it's a fault in the recording (and is one that you can't re-record) then EQ'ing the peak down or limiting the sound is will be what you need to resort to. Oftentimes, though, a peak means that an instrument is too loud, and you should mix the instrument levels down (generally for the entire phrase - suddenly getting soft and loud can be jarring). Compression, limiting and EQ'ing can create unintended artifacts in the mix, if you're not careful, while adjusting the volumes will not. I personally recommend messing with levels before resorting to other tools to fix peaks, if you can at all help it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Compression IS generally used to smooth out a very dynamic recording with lots of spikes, but if they are particularly unpleasant spikes then you might need to look into how they got there to begin with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theshaggyfreak Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Compression IS generally used to smooth out a very dynamic recording with lots of spikes, but if they are particularly unpleasant spikes then you might need to look into how they got there to begin with. I agree. Depending on what the source material is, it may just be best to re-record it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 It's 16 min long so I was hoping there could be a quick fix Guess not. I'll re-record it then. The problem is I don't want to re-record 16 minutes of the medley over and over just to analyze the waveform then make corrections -> rinse and repeat. That would take hours or even days just to do that This is an orchestral arrangements and the commercial ones have an average RMS power at around -13dB more or less for loud passages (not talking about the ones that are heavily compressed with "natural" peaks lopped off). What's your strategy for analyzing your songs in real-time? Edit: I should mention I use only midi to communicate with my VSTi and digital piano. VSTi isn't a problem, it's the fact that I have to record the analog signal from my digital piano that I have to sit and wait through the 16 minutes of my life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moseph Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 With careful wave editing, you can probably transparently fix the peak. There's no way for me to say how well any of these will work without actually attempting them, but here are some approaches you might try: Find a similar peak and splice it in to replace the loud peak. Select the peak, perform a gain reduction, and blend it back into the rest of the sound. Use a compressor only on the peak (if you have a compressor that can do destructive editing you can use that; otherwise, automate the compressor's bypass so the plugin is only active for the peak). Automate a decrease in the track's gain to compensate for the peak. If all else fails, rerecord only the section that peaks and then splice it in to replace the bad part. There's no reason you need to redo the entire 16 minutes. In fact, this should probably your preferred solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 It's called a Limiter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted June 8, 2012 Author Share Posted June 8, 2012 I now know where all those peaks were coming from. It was the sub-bass to lower-bass. I can't lower the levels on all bass instruments without making the song "bassless" (not frequency, but the instruments themselves). A multiband compressor helped tremendously. Followed by a limiter that I only used lightly. I'll need to tinker with the multiband compressor a little more, but the results were promising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I now know where all those peaks were coming from. It was the sub-bass to lower-bass. I can't lower the levels on all bass instruments without making the song "bassless" (not frequency, but the instruments themselves). A multiband compressor helped tremendously. Followed by a limiter that I only used lightly. I'll need to tinker with the multiband compressor a little more, but the results were promising. A low cut in your EQ between 20hz and 50hz can do a lot to your headroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted June 8, 2012 Author Share Posted June 8, 2012 A low cut in your EQ between 20hz and 50hz can do a lot to your headroom. Thanks for the tip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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