Thread: Amplifying

Can someone answer this please.

If I've ripped a tune and it's on the quiet side, does amplifying it compromise the quality?

There is much debate about this, particularly on "re-mastered" CDs

I wouldn't of thought so as long as you don't put it to load so it starts clipping and distorting. I'd of thought It would of got worse by compressing it and losing quality not making it louder. Better wait till Haze sees this and throws his two cents in. He has more experience in this field than me.

Also If you amplify the tune any hiss/noise will also be amplified so make sure you remove this before hand.

I'd say stick your headphones on & try your luck. You can always undo what you've done if ur not happy. As Bar said, better to have a quiet rip than one thats clipping all over the shop.

Cheers mate.

I've recorded a few rips that are quite low in sound and just wondered if I amplified them, would they sound shite. Or would it be best to leave them as they are. God knows

Originally Posted by dodders

I'd say stick your headphones on & try your luck. You can always undo what you've done if ur not happy. As Bar said, better to have a quiet rip than one thats clipping all over the shop.

I've tried a couple of tracks as an experiment and have amplified them so they're not clipping but louder than they were originally. Quality of them doesn't sound bad at all but wanted the opinion of a seasoned ripper.

When I rip my tracks I watch the dB meter from time to time to make sure Its peaking around -3dB. That gives me enough headroom just incase there are some louder peaks in the volume. -3dB is just my personal preference but you could bring it right up to 0dB if you wanted anything over and your clipping.

Depends -

If you're just boosting it for general playback at home / ipod / radio / car etc then just amp it up. I do it all the time for stuff I'm playing in the car.
I usually tweak the eq if needed, compress & then limit so it's nice & loud for the car.

Doing it for selling / professional use, then you need to be a bit careful.

Originally Posted by RenegadeGenius

Depends -

If you're just boosting it for general playback at home / ipod / radio / car etc then just amp it up. I do it all the time for stuff I'm playing in the car.
I usually tweak the eq if needed, compress & then limit so it's nice & loud for the car.

Doing it for selling / professional use, then you need to be a bit careful.

Cheers RG.

The ones that I want to amplify would be used in a club mate so would I be wasting my time amplifying them?

If its your rip i take it its a wav, so amp to -0.1. Dont bother if its an mp3.

Originally Posted by Phizzal

If its your rip i take it its a wav, so amp to -0.1. Dont bother if its an mp3.

Cheers Phizz.

So if I amp it up I don't lose any quality? On Audacity I can set it up to amp up and it shows me if it's clipped, so if it doesn't clip (the red lines) job's a good un?

Oh yeah, and they're wavs mate.

Originally Posted by Curly

Cheers RG.

The ones that I want to amplify would be used in a club mate so would I be wasting my time amplifying them?

Up one of the files so I can have a liitle look.
Normalizing shouldn't affect quality, but it'll only up it according to the loudest point, so if there's one really loud part, the rest won't go up by much, so would be best to have a look.

I'll upload one now mate. The one I've amped up the most. Thanks

It's this one I've amplified the most RG. This isn't my rip but a wav. I have a few of my own rips that I want amplifying so would be great if you could cast your expert ear over this please

AA1 - Higher Than Heaven _Roar Mix_.wav - DivShare

Originally Posted by Curly

It's this one I've amplified the most RG. This isn't my rip but a wav. I have a few of my own rips that I want amplifying so would be great if you could cast your expert ear over this please

AA1 - Higher Than Heaven _Roar Mix_.wav - DivShare

Okedoky, Loaded it up into adobe audition - it still looks very quiet (if you compare it to a modern tune anyway).
When it's been normalized, it's just amped it up to the loudest point - which in this case was a pop (see image below).
I've removed the pops & also going to try removing the background noise (which you can hear on headphones at the start) & will try a bit of compression & limiting on it.
Will upload the results in a bit.

Fantastic RG, cheers matey

I forgot to add that pic didn't I

Ok - here's the pic I mentioned above with the pop:

orig_Unbeefed.jpg

And here's how it looks now I've run it though some stuff:

orig_Beefed.jpg

So you can see everything has been brought up without squishing the peaks too much so there should still be a bit of 'punch' there.

What I did:

Adobe Audition - removed pops using the click remover tool (highlight similar sections & run it - repeat throughout tune in the quieter sections). Also remove big pops by zooming in on them - same tool.

Izotope RX - Noise Removal - Bit of hiss at the start - anaylised this & removed it from the rest of the tune. There is a similar tool in Adobe Audition, but this one is much better.

Adobe Audition - Convert to 32bit to preserve quality. Run compression tool (external vst), run limiting tool (external vst), convert back to 16bit & save out.

And finally, the resulting wav - let me know how it sounds your end - I've had to do it on headphones. I didn't touch the eq, but when beefing it up, it sometimes brings parts of it up.

Download:

Download AA1---Higher-Than-Heaven-_Roar-Mix_RG_Beef.rar from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way

RG I've just played it loud on my speakers and that is the most perfect rip I own!!!!! Bloody hell.

I didn't understand a word of what you did but blimey, it's worked a treat!!

Cheers mate

Originally Posted by Curly

RG I've just played it loud on my speakers and that is the most perfect rip I own!!!!! Bloody hell.

I didn't understand a word of what you did but blimey, it's worked a treat!!

Cheers mate

Glad it sounds alright
It's a lot harder trying to explain stuff over the net - when you're being shown it's a bit easier.
Basically I loaded up the file, got rid of the vinyl pops & background noise & used a couple of special vst things to bring the sound right up without distorting it

PS - quality tune as well.
Are the others you have of a similar style?
I don't mind amping up a couple of others if you like if they're the same sort of thing, but they do take a good 30mins each, so don't want loads coming over

Hahahahahahaha

yeah, they're all basically 90-91 hardcore tunes.

I'll send some over but not overload you

Originally Posted by Curly

Hahahahahahaha

yeah, they're all basically 90-91 hardcore tunes.

I'll send some over but not overload you

Rar some up - takes up less space than a full wav

Nice one mate.

I'll get on the case tomorrow

Thanks once again