MultitrackStudio User Forum

Hey board, I'm having a problem figuring out how to keep a steady volume in my mix. FYI, I'm basically just recording an acoustic guitar and adding vocals later. The problem is, the guitar gets lower when the vocals come in and I'm not sure how to correct it to keep it at the desired volume. I've read that a "dynamics" effect might be the solution but I would appreciate some sage advice here and how you handle it. For example, where's the best slot to load the dynamics effect, and what the "limiter, side chain, compressor, common and expander" roles are, and HOW TO USE them?

Thanks in advance!

Tjrich12 wrote:Hey board, I'm having a problem figuring out how to keep a steady volume in my mix. FYI, I'm basically just recording an acoustic guitar and adding vocals later. The problem is, the guitar gets lower when the vocals come in and I'm not sure how to correct it to keep it at the desired volume. I've read that a "dynamics" effect might be the solution but I would appreciate some sage advice here and how you handle it. For example, where's the best slot to load the dynamics effect, and what the "limiter, side chain, compressor, common and expander" roles are, and HOW TO USE them?

Thanks in advance!

Are you recording guitar and vocals in one track or separate tracks?

moxol wrote:

Tjrich12 wrote:Hey board, I'm having a problem figuring out how to keep a steady volume in my mix. FYI, I'm basically just recording an acoustic guitar and adding vocals later. The problem is, the guitar gets lower when the vocals come in and I'm not sure how to correct it to keep it at the desired volume. I've read that a "dynamics" effect might be the solution but I would appreciate some sage advice here and how you handle it. For example, where's the best slot to load the dynamics effect, and what the "limiter, side chain, compressor, common and expander" roles are, and HOW TO USE them?

Thanks in advance!

Are you recording guitar and vocals in one track or separate tracks?

Two separate tracks, in mono.

I don't understand how volume of guitar is getting lower, do you see lower db in level meter?

I don't know if similar effect exists in MTS, but Normalize effect in Audacity free wave editor does what you want.
Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level (the norm).

So maybe you can try Audacity to fix that, rather than MTS.

moxol wrote:I don't understand how volume of guitar is getting lower, do you see lower db in level meter?

I don't know if similar effect exists in MTS, but Normalize effect in Audacity free wave editor does what you want.
Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level (the norm).

So maybe you can try Audacity to fix that, rather than MTS.

Thanks moxol! I used the MTS "normalize" on a mix and it helped the relative volume. I guess it's about learning something new every day because I didn't know what that was for and I'll be downloading Audacity and trying it out on my next song.

Tjrich12 wrote:

moxol wrote:I don't understand how volume of guitar is getting lower, do you see lower db in level meter?

I don't know if similar effect exists in MTS, but Normalize effect in Audacity free wave editor does what you want.
Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level (the norm).

So maybe you can try Audacity to fix that, rather than MTS.

Thanks moxol! I used the MTS "normalize" on a mix and it helped the relative volume. I guess it's about learning something new every day because I didn't know what that was for and I'll be downloading Audacity and trying it out on my next song.

What effect exactly did you use?

moxol wrote:

Tjrich12 wrote:

moxol wrote:I don't understand how volume of guitar is getting lower, do you see lower db in level meter?

I don't know if similar effect exists in MTS, but Normalize effect in Audacity free wave editor does what you want.
Audio normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording to bring the average or peak amplitude to a target level (the norm).

So maybe you can try Audacity to fix that, rather than MTS.

Thanks moxol! I used the MTS "normalize" on a mix and it helped the relative volume. I guess it's about learning something new every day because I didn't know what that was for and I'll be downloading Audacity and trying it out on my next song.

What effect exactly did you use?

I tried to test the MTS "Normalize" function on a previously mixed track to see if it helped smooth the levels out and it seemed to work but it was "junk in". That being said and to answer your question, I opened a previously mixed track, hit "Select" for the whole track, checked "normalize" on the edit window and then "Apply".

I was playing around with Audacity over the weekend and will use it going forward to create a better mix.