Normalizing

My beats are basically all samples from vinyl - I try to sample everything as hot as possible. This, in the case of beat up vinyl, sometimes leads to excessive noise so sometimes I'm cool with samples that aren't quite that loud. With the finished track's levels in mind, is this bad? Or should I normalize each sample (with a noise gate perhaps) before starting to work on the track?

anyone?

Also, if if layer three loud kicks atop of each other, should I worry about clipping? That is, if I have three different kicks that don't clip on their own, can their sum exceed 0db? I'm not quite sure about this.

I think if it sounds alright then it is alright. If you can get the levels you want with your mixer you don't need to worry about normalising everything.

stinktank wrote:anyone?

Also, if if layer three loud kicks atop of each other, should I worry about clipping? That is, if I have three different kicks that don't clip on their own, can their sum exceed 0db? I'm not quite sure about this.

from my experience... NO

layering kicks that don't clip will not make them clip when triggered all together - only if one of them actually clips itself ... but you may want to decay one or two of them kiks so that you dont have a hit thats longer than the others - it just sounds wack ....

hell - even go to the mixer on the MP and pan one kik to the left - pan one to the right - and leave the other in the middle - then you can play around with stereo and shiitt - you'd be surprised what you get

i do a fair bit of recording to analogue tape. an old tascam 16 track. i keep it hot. the kicks are fat and the snares are spicy. hail tape saturation..

stinktank wrote:anyone?

Also, if if layer three loud kicks atop of each other, should I worry about clipping? That is, if I have three different kicks that don't clip on their own, can their sum exceed 0db? I'm not quite sure about this.

YES.

if you layer three loud kicks on top of each other it can clip. layering stuff can add boosts in certain frequencies that can make it clip (whether it clips within the mpc or when you are tracking it out).


trust your ears.

i've had situations where a beat i was tracking out track by track sounded dead compared to straight out of the stereo outs. i finally realized that the way it was clipping (within the mpc) made the bass and kick sound way meaner.

I normalize in Recycle.