Clip gain settings in DJ projects.

[Oran_Mor]

Curious question for those among us who use Live for DJ'ing.

I've been reworking the years-old project file I use for DJ stuff, and have been reconsidering my approach to clip gain settings. Historically I've used the auto-gain settings from Traktor, which have worked well enough, but I want to tighten them up and work towards a more consistent strategy.

Given that I'm dealing with around 1100 clips of full-length tracks, I have efficiency first and foremost. I've been contemplating taking LUFS values for each track and using those values as at least a starting point. I figure however that my previous method likely employed a similar technique (without knowing details of Traktors auto-gain algorithms), I'm unsure of how effective this will be. I'll do a batch test regardless, taking values from iZotope's RX analyser as a basis.

The other thing I've contemplated is using some sort of test tone as a basis around which to balance individual tracks, however I'm unsure of what sort of tone might be a useful anchor. Also, I suspect that with the time-consuming nature of this method, there might be a more than desirable level of human error involved.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Curious as to other peoples approaches to this.

~ OM

[wearemindflux]

Best way is to use your ear and match the level with output faders.

[Tarekith]

Just using the LUFS values would be the easiest way to make sure they are all the same perceived volume, but with 1100 tracks that could take a pretty long time to figure out. The easiest way I can think of would be to put all the songs in Aurchitect's Myriad app and normalize them all to the same LUFS value (say -13 or -16LUFS). Myriad is a batch processor, so all of this would be automated once you make the settings. Downside would be that this is a destructive process to the wav files, so the ASDs for your clips might get messed up and you have to rewarp.

[Oran_Mor]

Just using the LUFS values would be the easiest way to make sure they are all the same perceived volume, but with 1100 tracks that could take a pretty long time to figure out. The easiest way I can think of would be to put all the songs in Aurchitect's Myriad app and normalize them all to the same LUFS value (say -13 or -16LUFS). Myriad is a batch processor, so all of this would be automated once you make the settings. Downside would be that this is a destructive process to the wav files, so the ASDs for your clips might get messed up and you have to rewarp.

This is what I figured would be wisest. I haven't heard of Myriad before, so I'm looking at that now.

I still think what I'll likely do is a do a batch test of x number of tracks, see how that batch goes, and then work on the rest.

Can't say I'm looking forward to another mass warping, however I suspect if I prepare the files well, there may not be much of an issue.

One query I have, and this speaks to my lack of knowledge of the LUFS scale, I think. It's what correlation is there between an LUFS value, and a conventional gain stages dB scale? One thought I had was to take the LUFS value of a given track, and use Lives clip gain to factor in whatever offset the normalisation process would otherwise have. Is this a viable approach?

[Tarekith]

LUFS was created to scale with dB, so one LUFS value equals one dB. IE, if you had a track that was -12 LUFS and wanted to make it -8 LUFS, you could raise the clip gain 4dB. Just remember that to get an accurate LUFS reading you need to analyze the entire song, not just the loudest part.

[Oran_Mor]

That part I'm aware of. Good to know they scale accordingly.

Thanks for you input, much appreciated.