Ableton Forum

Hi guys. Would like to know all the different methods you guys use for setting all your tracks to an equal volume. What tools or plugs you use etc!

Owen

Owen252 wrote:Hi guys. Would like to know all the different methods you guys use for setting all your tracks to an equal volume. What tools or plugs you use etc!

Owen

fader?

my ears

gain knobs on top of the eq knobs, there's one per channel

but the only real way is to put a limiter on each track, and put the gain to +36db or something, so all are fullloud, then limited down to the track max. so you have everything equal and then it's all perfect and loooud and such.. /sarkasm

gain knobs or faders + ears, works great.

well, if you talk about preparing the clips of your liveset: you can set the level of each clip in the clip properties. Leave headroom (6 db or so, or more if you play many clips at once) !!!

davepermen wrote:gain knobs on top of the eq knobs, there's one per channel

This.

If you're 100% Ableton then change the track or clip volume, that works too.

Doing it as you go along is so much easier than any kind of software solution.

simonlb wrote:

davepermen wrote:gain knobs on top of the eq knobs, there's one per channel

This.

If you're 100% Ableton then change the track or clip volume, that works too.

Doing it as you go along is so much easier than any kind of software solution.

this, or i like often to use 'sends only' that gives you an artificial gain knob.

Owen252 wrote:Hi guys. Would like to know all the different methods you guys use for setting all your tracks to an equal volume. What tools or plugs you use etc!

Owen

The gain (and eq) knobs on my mixer

If you are looking for a plugin route - erm - utility + either EQ3 or EQ8 in a rack are the obvious things. Matching tracks tends to mean tweaking eq levels as much as overall levels as its not unusual for bass/treble levels to be hugely different from one from to the next, so you often need to smooth that out as well.

Dont go by the peak meters either - they just show the peaks and I find again that the amount of dynamic range (actual peak levels vs perceived avergae levels) can vary hugely from one track to the next as well. I cant say I have ever found an auto levelling or auto eq type of plugin that can even come close to a half decent DJ using his/her ears and controls available on a typical mixer.

Owen252 wrote:Hi guys. Would like to know all the different methods you guys use for setting all your tracks to an equal volume. What tools or plugs you use etc!

Owen

I like the "use your ears or the fader or the gain" suggestions. If you have a lot of audio files at different levels you can use software to bring them all up to a specified level. http://www.platinumnotes.com/ is just one of the many. (From the same folks that make Mixed-In-Key for what it's worth.)

we all know [hopefully...] that noise it's not an issue in digital world as opposed to ol'times of
analog [get the best SNR to avoid noise leeks] so there is no reason to go in red or close to it
for that matter. tarekith has a very good tutorial on the tip so def check it. and you can always
use some sort of comp/lim on ur track to avoid clipping but my favorite trick is to change live's
max value for each channel fader from +6 to 0. that's the first thing i do then i go into the clip's
volume and adjust it.
remember, you can save the clip's settings to be the same everytime it gets
loaded into a set....