Here's one for the pure audio gurus ... I'll frame it as a question about how best to utilize a plug-in like Ozone.... but if there's another solution, feel free to suggest it.

By special request, I'm remaking a mix from the early 80's ... well, back then it would have been more in the nature of a "mix tape" compilation, but now I'm updating it in MM.

My source material ia all jazz/lounge classics by artists like Betty Carter, Robert Palmer and Chet Baker, ripped from vinyl or CDs ... but, as part of the update, I've added some newer tracks (Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Worldwide Groove Corporation) ... and therein lies the problem.

As most of us know, the audio dynamics of recorded music have changed a lot in the past 20 years ... mostly trending toward louder, brighter and bigger. That means that there's a jolting difference between tracks recorded in the early to mid-80s, and those recorded in the last five years or so.

This isn't really an issue that mp3gain can solve because it doesn't simply involve loudness ... it's more an issue of presence, which involves a range of stuff that is generally described in terms like brilliance or warmth ... and in Ozone, these factors are handled by the Multiband Dynamics control (I already have the basic MM Compression on.)

So, I'm pretty sure Ozone could bump up the presence on all the non-new tracks (the majority) ... but I'm wondering if there is a setting to simply back off the presence on the very few newer tracks instead ... in other words, how do you make a track mastered in the last 5 or 10 years sound like it was mastered in the 80's?

Thanks!

hmmm, interesting post.

I don't think I have thee answer, but I do have a few comments.

I agree that mp3gain is not the right tool in this case. Mp3gain will make them all the same overall level, which is just part of it. CDs from about 1994 on suffer from compression, and just don't have the dynamic range (the difference between the soft parts and the loud parts) they once had. All to do with the silly theory that 'louder' cds sell more. Anyhow, since this compression is part of the source, you can't really back it off. Which means you'll need to add it to the old trax.

You mentioned that you ripped the old trax from vinyl, which is quite different than any other format, in the sense that the vinyl manufacturers add a 12db roll off to reduce any hiss in the highs from the actual physical playback. So you have trax that are uncompressed and are weaker in the highs.

My advice for the old trax? Use an EQ setting to boost the highs (play around with where it starts), but also add a compressor to each track. I'm still stuck with MM6 (by choice ) and us the db-m multiband limiter, which would work in this case.

At the end of the day, you are butchering the orignal song, acoustically (no more than a radio station does though), but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Whilst I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as the esteemed Phreaq, you might want to consider the new download from Izotope - Izotope Vinyl.

Available in both DX and VST flavours, following a simple registration process (all it asks for is an email addy and name details) you can install it to work on any version of MixMeister.

Once you've applied the effect to each tune, part of tune or whole Mix, you can set several different parameters, not least of which is to make the sound equivalent to that of a turntable from the 30's,50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and from 2000.

Therefore applying this to a whole Mix should give a uniform sound to the Mix.

You can also use it for fun things such as recreating scratches and surface noise that we all used to love in vinyl

Just a lo-fi solution maybe?

Thanks to you both! That gives me a couple of different options to try out ...

I tried out Izotope Vinyl and it's just the ticket! Awesoome recommendation, Wildr -- much appreciated (phreaq, I went that way in order to work on just 3-4 tracks, rather than adjust all the others ....)

Glad I could help Mme - setting a tune or part of a tune to 1930's set up really creates some interesting effects in transitions!

Hope you get your Mix Mastered just right!