Peak Value

Help for Audacity on Windows.
Forum rules
ImageThis forum is for Audacity on Windows.
Please state which version of Windows you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".


Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
Post Reply
TJB
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:03 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Peak Value

Post by TJB » Mon May 17, 2021 5:19 pm

Just finished a 17 min recording and when I did the mastering, it showed the Peak Value exceeded -3db.

Two questions: What causes that? And can I somehow fix that now or do I need to re-record everything?

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 69357
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Peak Value

Post by kozikowski » Mon May 17, 2021 5:34 pm

when I did the mastering
Did you use all three tools?

You can run RMS Normalize (or Loudness Normalize) and then Limiter more than once. They are go-to-completion tools. If they're not needed, they don't do anything.

Did you use tone controls or any other processing after Mastering? Mastering is intended to be the last step before you export your Edit Master WAV and the MP3 for Audible/ACX submission.

Try a test where you do all your processing (except noise reduction) before Mastering.

Koz

TJB
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:03 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Peak Value

Post by TJB » Mon May 17, 2021 6:07 pm

Koz, I did Filter Curve, RMS Normalize, Limited, Hum Removal ,,, then ACX and it showed Peak was off. Those were the only actions I took.

DVDdoug
Forum Crew
Posts: 9416
Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:30 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Peak Value

Post by DVDdoug » Mon May 17, 2021 7:17 pm

The Limiter should have "pushed-down" the peaks so check your Limiter settings and run it again. (Make sure you're not using Make-up Gain.)

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 69357
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Peak Value

Post by kozikowski » Mon May 17, 2021 7:24 pm

Hum removal goes first. If you have bad enough hum, it can throw the other tools off.

Screen Shot 2021-05-17 at 12.22.42 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-17 at 12.22.42 PM.png (47.8 KiB) Viewed 69 times

Koz

TJB
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:03 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Peak Value

Post by TJB » Mon May 17, 2021 9:12 pm

Koz, thanx ... first off, my limiter was set correctly. I went back and re-applied it and now everything's OK. If I had to bet, I'd bet that I somehow skipped the Limiter step when I did the initial mastering.

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 69357
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Peak Value

Post by kozikowski » Mon May 17, 2021 10:56 pm

I'd bet that I somehow skipped the Limiter step when I did the initial mastering.
Without digging through all those posts, which Audacity are you using?

Windows? Help > About Menu.

Koz

Post Reply