Suggestions for extremely quiet recordings

[JPierce]

Hi,
I'm definitely a newbie to ableton, and music production in general, so let me apologize upfront if the answer to this is terribly obvious. Anyways, here's my issue- I purchased Ableton Lite Line 6 to record my guitar; however, due to my initial guitar cable, all my recordings were really quiet, peaking at -22db. So now that I want to take some of these recordings and put them on a cd, I was wondering what the best way to amplify them would be? When I leave the tracks alone and just turn up the 'output' volume nob on the line 6 device, the recordings sound pretty decent; but, if I increase the 'clip gain' in ableton's 'sample box', the corresponding rendered track tends to sound kind of wavery or quivery. Is there a better way to increase the volume so it sounds similar to just turning that 'output knob' up?
Any advice would be much appreciated
cheers,
Josh

[Aeroplay]

Maybe it helps if you just activate normalize in the export audio window?


peace

[JPierce]

Thanks for the reply- I tried normalizing the track, and the result was similar to increasing the 'clip gain' in the 'sample box' (that is, there was that same kind of vibrato, 'wavery' distortion. It seems that I might have to learn to live with that for all my older, quiet recordings, in which case normalizing will be the way to go...But I would gladly try other ideas, if anyone has more suggestions.

[Short Scope Boy]

Hi JPierce

First off IMO, if the original recordings were that bad it may be worth writing them off, as you cannot polish a Turd !!! as they say.

However, if you really want to keep them!... i'm not sure what functions your version includes, but try this...

Try loading your original audio file onto Audio track 1, then create another audio track:

In the "Audio From" section of the second track choose Audio Track 1; then boost the gain on track 1 until it sounds Louder, but not so it clips.

Record enable Track 2 you should now hear Track 1 but louder, again make sure it does not clip! When you are happy with the sound quality, record a new clip. (on track 2) You can repeat this process until you get the required result, and atleast you can hear whats going wrong. If you are really after volume try sticking a Limiter on Audio 1 set the threshhold to -1db and then boost the gain until you get the sound you want.

Voila.

However, you may find that as the track gets louder the artefacts will become more obvious. If that is the case; why not just re-play them?

Good luck My friend.

[stubba]

Also, this wobbly sound wouldn't be because your clip is set to warp to "beats" as opposed to "texture" or "tone" and because you're making it louder you're hearing it more, would it?

Just a suggestion...

[JPierce]

Thanks for the advice- incidentally, my clip was set to 'beats' warp, but the clip's original tempo was identical to the overall 'current' tempo, so if I understand correctly, warp settings wouldn't influence the sound quality... (but I'm definitely going to check those settings for my other recordings, so I appreciate you pointing it out) I think I might go with Short Scope Boy's advice and mess around with ableton's compressor to see what I can do with sound quality. To be honest, I wanted this cd of my earlier recordings more for posterity's sake then anything, so maybe the crappy sound quality can just be further reminder of a time when I had no idea how to use ableton. anyways, thanks again for the suggestions

cheers,
Josh

[stubba]

The warp settings shouldn't make a difference - but it might be worth having a play and seeing if it helps.

[Short Scope Boy]

Thanks for the advice- incidentally, my clip was set to 'beats' warp, but the clip's original tempo was identical to the overall 'current' tempo, so if I understand correctly, warp settings wouldn't influence the sound quality... (but I'm definitely going to check those settings for my other recordings, so I appreciate you pointing it out) I think I might go with Short Scope Boy's advice and mess around with ableton's compressor to see what I can do with sound quality. To be honest, I wanted this cd of my earlier recordings more for posterity's sake then anything, so maybe the crappy sound quality can just be further reminder of a time when I had no idea how to use ableton. anyways, thanks again for the suggestions

cheers,
Josh

Hey Josh

Hope you sort it buddy; Stubba was right to point out that Warp can F*** with the sound... but the benefit of direct record rather than rendering is you can hear what is going on in real time.


Peace...