Mixing/Mastering

Hey guys, quick thought for you.

It seems that on every show, your guest is always much quieter than the two of you are. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, or what tools/equipment you have at your disposal to correct this, but it makes it hard to listen to the show sometimes. Listening at work, I continualy have to turn my speakers up to hear your guests, and then have to quickly turn it back down when you guys start booming through the speakers.

Johnny, since I get the impression that you handle the engineering side of the show, do you think you can adjust your levels a bit, or add some compression, to normalize the volume of all speakers on the show?

Best,
Brent

EDIT: Wow, I just realized I'm the first member to start a thread in this forum! How spiffy.


[edit on 1/28/2008 by damajikninja]

reply to post by damajikninja


Greatings I am a subject matter expert when it comes to this. there is a really sweet program called ableton live. it is like a mixing studio. you would have to record your guests and your selves sepaeratly or if you are recording together what might make it sound sloppy is alter the volume when someone else speaks. I'll show you. (if I can get these pictures to load) or if you just take those audio files and cut and paste the ones you want where you want them you could just drag them to diffrent volume channels.

[edit on 31-1-2008 by Ryan Herbst]

I'm not sure how they perform the engineering. Is it a live broadcast or recorded? If Live then it is easiest to simply adjust whatever hardware mixer he is using, optionally getting a hardware compressor inline with the master fader/master output. A properly set compressor/limiter would limit the peaks and boost the quieter parts for a more even volume.

If recorded in separate takes, then yeah software such as Ableton Live, or Pro Tools (I prefer and use Pro Tools), or others could be used to do post-production.

Hey guys if you need a full-time audio engineer who is also an ex-physicist and open minded thinker, where do I apply? Heck I would even work part time from home if you have any audio projects that need work...

[edit on 31-1-2008 by Ionized]

Originally posted by Ionized
I'm not sure how they perform the engineering. Is it a live broadcast or recorded? If Live then it is easiest to simply adjust whatever hardware mixer he is using, optionally getting a hardware compressor inline with the master fader/master output. A properly set compressor/limiter would limit the peaks and boost the quieter parts for a more even volume.

If recorded in separate takes, then yeah software such as Ableton Live, or Pro Tools (I prefer and use Pro Tools), or others could be used to do post-production.

Hey guys if you need a full-time audio engineer who is also an ex-physicist and open minded thinker, where do I apply?

Heck I would even work part time from home if you have any audio projects that need work...

[edit on 31-1-2008 by Ionized]

i volunteered first.

The ATSMIX production staff (aka Johnny) is VERY well experienced in digital/analog audio engineering, with a long resume going back many years. He knows quite well how to use a multi-tracker, DAW, mixer, etc.

I've already talked with Johnny at length - there is a good technical reason for the trouble and it will be resolved shortly after some 'changes' are made.

Keep 'yer pantyhose on!

[edit on 2/1/2008 by damajikninja]

Originally posted by damajikninja I've already talked with Johnny at length - there is a good technical reason for the trouble and it will be resolved shortly after some 'changes' are made.

Yeah,it's called DJ EAR...
Basically put, it's a condition that makes every DJ whack tons of compression and bass on their voice to make them sound manly.. then they make their guest sound like he's been snorting helium for a week.

Keep up with the meds guys.. it goes away after a while.

Originally posted by AGENT_T
Yeah,it's called DJ EAR...
Basically put, it's a condition that makes every DJ whack tons of compression and bass on their voice to make them sound manly.. then they make their guest sound like he's been snorting helium for a week.

Keep up with the meds guys.. it goes away after a while.

Well it's so nice to see a bevy of sound engineers in here offering up their free unsolicited advice and comments on our shows.

But I digress. All of our interviews are done over the internet by means of Skype and our connections with our guest are through either a Landline or their cellphone. All one needs to do is listen to any prominent talk show such as Coast 2 Coast while they're interviewing one of their guests to hear that the Host's always will sound better because of the studio equipment versus how the guest sounds. Even with attempts to normalize a guest's vocals to the levels of the hosts, it will never sound the same. There are not any form of multi-track recordings or 'level layering' done as it is all one mono stream via the internet. We are at the mercy of the internet, packet losses, bad cellular connections or service dropouts, and any number of other inconvenience's that are posed in our interviews/shows/segments that unfortunately are beyond our control. And yes, both Dave and I have great Microphones and so naturally, we will sound better than a telephones microphone... Keep also in mind that Dave is in Texas and I am in California, there isn't a "one studio setting template" for us to live and work by in two separate locations.

I have no idea what the "keep up with meds" reference is all about, but I'm going to choose to ignore it as it sounds borderline to going against the T&C's of ATS.

We currently are not looking for any volunteers or "spokespersons", but thank you for thinking of us. But if you do have "experience" in Radio and/or Television you can post your resume here:
HELP WANTED: Radio / TV Experience Required


Johnny

[edit on 12-2-2008 by JohnnyAnonymous]

I must say, I've been processing ATS Mix shows using Adobe Audition since... the begining of the shows. I noticed the loudness differences between guests and the hosts and sure - I understand a phoneline will sound worse than a studio microphone, but making the volume levels at least a little bit more even can make a huge difference.

Also, often there is a lot of background noise, like pops and clicks, most likely from the phoneline. When I compress the dynamics and use some hard limiting and volume normalizing, the noise and pops start to stand out more - but the software I use can deal with that too

Then, I add some equalizer to up higher frequencies and voila! I can listen to your show in the middle of the night with my volume set to '1' and hear everything without waking up all the people in the house


Basically, what I'm saying is that yes, you can do some things to make your shows sound a lot better while still being encoded at 64kbps/22kHz.

Nice to see the comment was taken with the humour that was intended.

It was more of a reference to Nightclub/pub Dj's in my MANY years of experience but apologies for your bruised ego and if I can get a Mod to remove it I will..

The 'Meds' refers to a shot of whisky to help the vocal chords but hey.. Apologies for that too.

Try to have some fun guys..Really.: