Consistent Sound Levels when building sound effects

[Barry]

I know this only has a little to do with SCS, but I'm going to ask anyway.

I use my laptop with headphones to build my sound effects, using Goldwave. I have them at a certain volume that sounds good when I build it, but then, as expected, the volume needs to be raised quite a bit when fed through SCS and the FOH system. A few times, I have even had to modify the actual sound byte so I can get it loud enough on the system, which usually distorts the sound.

Does anyone have any tricks that will allow me to have a more consistent volume level at show time?

Barry

[Mike Daniell]

A feature in Goldwave that I have used is Maximize Volume (under Effect / Volume). In that same menu item group is Match Volume, but I haven't used that feature. Have a look in the Goldwave Help for Maximize Volume and Match Volume.

[dee99]

Try compressing the audio, depending on the type of audio you can choose different levels of compression in most audio editing programs. You will have to experiment to see which one sounds best for your usage, for example I normally compress classical music for shows where say children are dancing to it because it makes it easier for them to hear & dance to at the same time. Recently we did a home grown play about a radio station where all the announcer voice over bits were heavily compressed to make it sound like you average FM radio station. However too much compression & the noise will come up or it can sound all "breathy". For vocals I may use a de-esser in the compression in order to remove any long "sss" & breath intake noises.

Sometimes it takes a bit of effort to get it just right but I feel its worth the effort especially when the sound effects get a good mention in the critics review. Thanks for that Mike , SCS handled 145 cues perfectly for 3 shows and triggered the lighting changes via MIDI all on one laptop.

Dee