Is anyone using specific techniques (other than ears) to match volume levels between rackspaces?
I’m new to ‘loudness meters’ but plugins like this look interesting. I had a Reference Level set (-11) and after playing through a rackspace for a while (that had quite a low output volume) I used the Gain Match (“M”) button which then automatically gain adjusted the output to +7.8. To my ears it was then a nice match to my other rackspaces (that I similarly matched).
I Trust my ears but always in the Context of a Band.
Not only Volume is important but also the frequency spectrum.
Sometime when your Sound is too quiet there could be too much low frequency which uses Energy.
The opposite is true when you Sound has too much higher mid frequencies and it will be too loud.
@pianopaul is absolutely right. Not only the loudness, but also the sound itself changes completely within a context of a band.
Sound can be moved left, right, forward, back and anywhere in between using a bit of panning and frequency filtering. FOH can determine what’s going on.
Having said all this - I do have a certain level I want to achieve for certain sounds in relation to each other. That’s important. So you can use your ears or a tool - whatever works for you.
In order to judge the context, I record our band, then make adjustments based on the mix. I use a different variation for each part of each song for this reason.
I have 350 rackspaces and I’ve often wondered if there was an accurate method of balancing rack space gain levels. This could be what I’ve been looking for. Only thing is, assuming I need one on both the L and R mixer outs, I’m going to have to insert the plugin 750 times!
Picking this up few years later because it just became relevant to me last night. I used youlean’s plugin to get some consitency across my sounds because it claimed “Youlean Loudness Meter helps you find the true perceived loudness of your audio”. The TRUE PERCEIVED loudness were key words and got my interest. I spent a lot of time preparing my volume levels between rackspaces and variations at home only to find that with the band, playing live, many of them were way off. So I tried to see how and IF the TRUE PERCEIVED loudness claim holds water. I adjusted all my clean, crunch and lead sounds (yes, guitar) to be more or less in the same “integrated LUFS” level within each category. Last night I tested it live and surprise, surprise, it was really good! It was the most consistent I’ve had my sounds I’d say.
I guess the question is whether it’s useful when you are setting up your gigfile for the first time to get some reasonable balances before you start rehearsing, etc.
I only use it in preparation at home, then I bypass it so its a non issue for me. So basically, I play each sound for 5-10 seconds or so to get a good average LFUS and adjust until its in the desired range. After I’m done, I bypass it. Its in my GRS towards the end of my signal chain so I can reuse it again for new RS.
Seems like this plugin would have been much quicker than the method I use- record all the instruments in the band, set a reasonable mix on playback, then make notes of which song parts have to come up or down a few db.
You can sub mix the 8 outs to 1 stereo and just put 1 YOULEAN on that stereo signal… That’s how I’m doing it…
I use TBProAudio’s mvMeter2 set to -18 to set the overall dB level on each sound signal. I use Voxengo SPAN to level eq and find mid and side deficiencies …
I also Use Waves WLM meter instead of YOULEAN, to check perceived loudness … It uses MUUUUCH less CPU and I find it just as efficient…
If you set this in Global, you can activate these 3 via each rackspace without having to place them in each one.
I set up all the sounds in a new rackspace, then activate the 3 plugins and level each sound, one by one … then close them and move on to the next rackspace… works every time… All rackspaces are at the same level…
