[ardour-users] Newbie help with dynamics in Ardour...

[kannoll]

I have been using Ardour for a while now just to record simple
spoken voice tracks (lectures and the like). I am comfortable
doing this, but now I have been asked to make some of my 
recordings available on CD.

It's pretty easy to export ardour sessions and burn them to CD. 
I've done this and the results aren't all that bad (to my ears 
at least).

The problem that I have is adjusting the dynamics of the recording
and the subsequent export for CD. Generally the tracks are too low,
so that once burned to CD, I have to crank the volume up higher 
than I would for most other CDs (typical music CDs).

Then there's the range of dynamics. Sometimes the speaker is loud
and sometimes soft, so I end up adjusting the CD player volume
while listening, and there's the occasional pop when the speaker
bumps the mic or speaks a p or t works really loud.

So I'm trying to figure out a good way to produce a final "mix"
that eliminates the pops, brings the general volume up, but 
still preserve some of the dynamic range.

I've tried some combinations of compressors and limiters (and 
the various settings on them), but just can't seem to get it right,
and I'm a little frustrated because there doesn't seem to be a way
to visualize the signal level in the track displays (I think this
would help me figure out how to adjust some of the compressor
and limiter settings).

Can someone give me some advice or pointers on how best to handle
this?

TIA!

--kan--
--
Kevin A. Noll, KD4WOZ
CCIE, CCDP
Versatile, Inc.		
Kevin.Noll at versatile.com
+1-717-796-1936

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