A lot of people will use the "Normalize" function in Vegas. This will adjust the peak level to a certain value. Unfortunately, peak levels are meaningless when it comes to determining how "loud" your final product is. The human ear doesn't determine loudness by the peak level, it determines it by the average (or RMS) level. The "normalize" function in Vegas is useless because it only makes adjustments based on peak levels and that's not they way we hear things.

If you're watching a movie on TV and it has some relatively quiet dialog and then a commercial comes on, the commercial sounds louder because it has been heavily compressed in order to raise its average level (and get your attention.) The fact of the matter is that the movie and the commercial probably had the same peak level, it just that the commercial has a much higher average level.

Audio compression and limiting is an art form and it takes a lot of experience to do it "correctly." There are no hard and fast rules to determine the appropriate average level, you'll just have to play it by ear. But like I said, peak levels are virtually meaningless (well, as long as they don't exceed 0db.)

You could use the Normalize function in Sound Forge, it can be set to normalize for average levels, which is what we want. Render out the audio from the entire timeline and pull it into Sound Forge, then mark each different clip or section that needs to be level matched. Use the Normalize function in Sound Forge and set it to normalize using "Average RMS power" and normalize to -20db and select "If clipping occurs apply Dymanic Compression." -20db is a good starting point, you will have to play with this value for your project. Once you have determined the appropriate RMS level, use that same value for everything and the loudness of will be matched throughout your entire project.

John

You can create sub mixes or run the various channels through subs - I mean just assign a new bus and assign the channels to that bus. You can add an effect to only those channels, but you are doing it to all of them at the same time.

For me I do sub mixes, tweaking whatever I need to along the way, and than I do a final mix from those sub mixes and I add compression at the end. I use the Waves Broadcast bundle DX filters, lots of fun stuff in there. I am using the L1 Ultramaximzier + set at "16 bit final master, highest res" for the final output. Have the out ceiling set a -3.

The built in filters such as Wavehammer and the track compresson work along the same idea, I just like the Waves stuff more. You can also buy individual plug-ins from them - but the bundles are ususally a better deal.

I came across this and found it interesting, even more so since my post above metioned the Waves plug-ins. From an interview with Bob Chefalas about how he mixes.

The Waves L2 UltraMaximizer is a secret in this industry, In mastering, you can feed music through it, contain it and still make it sound loud. I use that on my dialog to give it extra punch, but it won't go past what they'll allow. The compressors on-air won't start compressing my dialog, so I can limit my dynamic range and not make it overly loud. I use a combination of that and the Neve 33609 as a soft compressor, which, with a 2:1 ratio, is smoothing out the dialog and not overly compressing it. Then the L2 will hit and contain any of the peaks.

For really transparent limiting, one highly respected limiter is the inexpensive and strangely-named "Elephant" by Voxengo.

FWIW, if you want to really get down to the grit in this question, check out WAVES new book on using plugins, mix techniques, etc. It's an incredibly well done hardbound book with testing files, actual mixes, and more.

I love all things WAVES, I couldn't do without the L2 (and now the L3 Multimaximizer.) However, I still think the Sony Noise Reduction plugin in "Mode 3" works much better that the WAVES NR plugin.

John

>>>check out WAVES new book on using plugins, mix techniques, etc.<<<

I found one book - Production with Waves Production - Mixing - Mastering with Waves by Anthony Egizii. It comes with 7 CD's of material. I guess that is what you are talking about. But according to the "requirements" it doesn't support Vegas. Or are the project files importable into Vegas?

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PC:
Pentium 4 1.7GHz, AMD Athlon XP 1800+ or faster
512MB or RAM
Software:
Sonar 3.11 Producer Edition
Cubase SX 2.2.0.33
Nuendo 2.2.0.33
Protools TDM 6.4 running HD/Accel
Protools TDM 6.4.1 running MIX
Protools LE 6.4 (MBox not supported)

I still have the Waves Native Gold Bundle in my plug-ins arsenal but to be honest I haven't used many of them in several years. There have been so many great VST plugs that have come out in the last few years (Eqium, Sonalksis, Voxengo etc.). I also use and like the Powercore and UAD-1 DSP cards. On the DX side, Ozone is still a very useful tool.

I love the new Samplitude Analog Modeling Suite too. I just finshed an album re-mastering project and everything was sounding very good and then Modeling Suite came out and we tried it and its light tape saturation mode made quite a number of the mixes really shine.

But in the end it all comes down to personal taste and what you're using the tools for.