Peak Value

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?

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

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.

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.)

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

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Koz

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.

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