Acoustic Guitar Transients and Voilume

[SimonT]

Hi!

It seems when I record acoustic guitar, that the sound levels on certain strums fluctuate, and on looping, quite often the first strum when it goes back to the beginning of the loop again is quieter and is very noticeable. I must obviously be strumming harder as I go on and get into the song so it's getting louder, and obviously when it loops back round again the first initial strum is quieter. The attack transients on the waveform when I zoom in are at different heights as well - visually. Should they all be the same size in order for it to sound even in volume? is this what a producer would do, or would it just be recorded again?

I'm using Reason, and this daw is probably behind the times in it's audio recording manipulation capabilities in comparison to other daws. Do other daws ('cause this is something I've just noticed would be handy now) have a way of making certain strums or wave transients in audio the exact same size or volume? That would be a great feature in the next version of Reason. A way to highlight certain attack points/transients and make them all the same size/amplitude/volume.

I've tried compression and this doesn't alter the wave visually so they still jump out in places.

Thanks!

 

[Adrian-MarQ]

Visuals aren't as reliable as your ears, but they are still helpful in some ways. You would need to print out your recording after it has gone through the compressor if you wanted to see a visual difference in the waveform. You could also try automating the volume to fix your volume issue.

The best solution would be to rerecord your playing. It would probably help you out with producing a consistent performance in addition to getting rid of the extra processing.

 

[sswmastering]

What a wave form looks like and sounds like are 2 totally different things. Focus more on what your recording sounds like rather than what the image of the wave form appears to be. Reason is not really lacking at all in editing features or any other features for that matter and you can make edits to individual parts of anything you've recorded whether it is audio or midi.

If you come across a part of your recording that you feel does not have the proper volume level it should, after of course judging with your ears then turn off the snap function and use that razor tool to separate the exact part that is bugging you. You can adjust the volume of either that single piece or to the rest of the recording to get the ideal volume level you want by dragging that little line up or down on the selected item. Don't worry about size or the visual aspect until you get more experience and are able to match what you hear with what you see so just use your ears for now. Oh also Reason's automation is great, just create an automation lane and make the adjustments to your recordings that way, sometimes you'll get better results than using a compressor that may rob the recording of it's natural dynamics which you most certainly want to keep.

If you have any questions about Reason send me an email through my site for the fastest reply or send me a pm for a slightly slower response.

Hi!

It seems when I record acoustic guitar, that the sound levels on certain strums fluctuate, and on looping, quite often the first strum when it goes back to the beginning of the loop again is quieter and is very noticeable. I must obviously be strumming harder as I go on and get into the song so it's getting louder, and obviously when it loops back round again the first initial strum is quieter. The attack transients on the waveform when I zoom in are at different heights as well - visually. Should they all be the same size in order for it to sound even in volume? is this what a producer would do, or would it just be recorded again?

I'm using Reason, and this daw is probably behind the times in it's audio recording manipulation capabilities in comparison to other daws. Do other daws ('cause this is something I've just noticed would be handy now) have a way of making certain strums or wave transients in audio the exact same size or volume? That would be a great feature in the next version of Reason. A way to highlight certain attack points/transients and make them all the same size/amplitude/volume.

I've tried compression and this doesn't alter the wave visually so they still jump out in places.

Thanks!

 

[bandcoach]

1) reason is as fully featured as any other daw with regards to its audio editing/manipulation tools

Hi!

It seems when I record acoustic guitar, that the sound levels on certain strums fluctuate, and on looping, quite often the first strum when it goes back to the beginning of the loop again is quieter and is very noticeable. I must obviously be strumming harder as I go on and get into the song so it's getting louder, and obviously when it loops back round again the first initial strum is quieter. The attack transients on the waveform when I zoom in are at different heights as well - visually. Should they all be the same size in order for it to sound even in volume? is this what a producer would do, or would it just be recorded again?

2) using a compressor may not affect the perceived rendering of the waveform especially if you have make-up gain added to bring everything back up to where the signal was prior to processing

3) tip from a producer/mix engineer with 40+ platinum records (not me) - never compress an acoustic guitar - mic placement will do more for this problem than compressing ever could and compression tends to make the acoustic guitar more sterile

4) as already noted your ears are far more important than the images - it is after all audio engineering not visual engineering - if you perceive a problem aurally then look at maybe recording a longer section so that you have a balanced group of strums/transients - i.e. record 3 times through the section then choose either the 2nd or 3rd time through as your basic loop