River wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:45 pm
Eureka. Rendering as stems was the culprit. Some marathons end in steep upward hills; Reaper ends with its rendering menu. It is not intuitive to me.
Just so you know, I do not like to have to look up big words, nor do I want to drive to WV, to hit you over the head with a dictionary. (However I do miss WV.). I am glad you were able to figure it out.
I re-arranged the files so that they were on separate tracks, but beginning where the previous track ends. Then I exported as a master mix for pre-mastering, then separate tracks in the mastering.
I may be misunderstanding your statement, but it seems like you are doing the same thing twice. If that is the case, then you will get a lower quality of audio, due to over processing.
I could've done it as project regions too (I did that for the "mastering"). That way it exported preserving the clean-up effects. Overall I'm happy with it, considering my limitations and self-imposed deadline. I ref'ed it with another audiobook. The "professionally" mastered one sounded warmer but the difference was not jarring. Mouth noise haunts my performance but it is not ruinous. I'll send you the link.
I look forward to the link. Stop, take a breath and remember that deadlines have no place in recording audio. That is why Artists, spend months in recording studios. It has nothing to do with experience, it mostly deals with someone feeling being rushed, and their true talent suffers, as they can not preform, in their natural way. I have listened to your audio on $60,000.00 speakers. You are much better then you think you are!
If I understood the statistics, most of the audio is actually a little lower than ACX RMS standards. I also don't have a limiter with an obvious tool for setting the maximum output. Any tips you have on how to get purposefully spot-on would be helpful.
There are many third party plugins, concerning limiters. I have three that I paid over $1,200.00 for. Honestly, the ones that come stock with Reaper, do just as well. Look for the "Volume Adjustment", "Peak Limiter" and "Master Limiter" plugins that come stock with Reaper. They are simple to use and I can assure you, 99.9% of Mastering Engineers, would not be able to tell the difference between the Reaper plugins, compared to the
IK mastering Suite bundle. I get hate mail all the time, contradicting my statements, but, it is what it is.
Put ten Mastering Engineers, Chefs, Carpenters, Doctors, Day Care Helpers in the same room, and you will get 10 different opinions, every, single, time. If you want to tame the peaks, use the peak limiter in Reaper. After all is said and done, when you are 100% finished and you want to render the project, slap the Master Limiter on the Master Track and let it eat.
Just so you know, you do not need to have a problem, in order to post here. You are more experience then you know, and I think, you have a lot of advice you could give to others. Try and think back to the first time, someone placed a mic in front of you. That is what we are all about here. Taking someone with no experience, to the point of recording professional audio, regardless if it is just speech, or laying down 30 tracks. Happy Turkey day. For the next 12 hours, I will be doing what this guy is doing, in the pic below. After that, I will be cooking.
