Thanks Kent ... this is more or less the process I follow, and it definitely works. However, I had no idea about mp3 introducing distortion into audio normalized to zero, that bit of info is quite useful.
~David On 1/25/07, kent williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've let this thread go about 'recording to the computer' but it seems like everyone is saying things that aren't strictly true. So here is my 'best practice' for recording a DJ mix:
...
3. Once you're run your audio through the limiter, then you can normalize the file. I don't normalize all the way to 0.0dB, because this can cause distortion when you encoode to MP3. -0.2 or -0.3dB is close enough. Once you normalize, check the RMS level of your recorded mix. Select a loud passage of your normalized audio, and use your audio editing program to calculate the statistics for it. I generally shoot to have the loudest sections at an RMS volume of between -12 and -10dB. This in my experience correspondsd well with the levels on commercial CDs, and in most cases, you'll still have some of the natural dynamics of the music left.
