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FamiTracker
is there a way to increase the volume of a track without compromising quality? usually i'll export as a wav and then amplify slightly in audacity, but not so much as to cause clipping. However i still find the volume to be rather low overall, especially if i'm using dpcm, which is pretty much always, lol. Any input is appreciated. thanks
Make the square waves quieter, then every other channel gets louder. I guess that's the best way to make the DMC louder. Since the Triangle, Noise, and DMC channels get mixed together separately from the square waves, one will affect the other. For example, you can try to force your DMC samples to end in such a way that will affect the triangle's volume.
As for what the volume level should be? That's a good question. Everything has its own idea of how loud something should be. Sometimes, it's far too quiet (Angry Video Game Nerd videos especially, my laptop speakers can't go high enough for these). Other people just put really loud stuff on Youtube.
One possibility is to go with whatever MP3Gain says is a good volume level. MP3Gain is a useful tool that normalizes MP3 files, but doesn't make them too loud. Usually, it ends up quieting them down. Its target volume level is 89.0dB. It's much quieter than what a simple full-range peak normalizer would give. Since I like MP3Gain's results, that's what I end up shooting for, setting volume levels in games and stuff to try to match that level, etc.
MP3Gain is also on the good end of the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war]Loudness War.
If you click "amplify" in audacity, the default value it fills in is the maximum you can amplify without clipping. If you use that, it should be as loud as you can get.
I actually like the level that FamiTracker's WAV output puts them at; it's usually around 50% of max (unless the whole track is quiet), and I find that's a good medium volume that matches well with most other things I run into.
Are you sure it's not just the application you're listening to the WAV in that's quiet? (Check your volume control.)
Also, if you have expansions on, the volume of individual channels is lower, I think (so that when they're all on they still won't clip).
And personally I like to export as NSF and then open it in Winamp with NotSoFatso so that I can control individual channel EQ. Then just export to WAV. Everyone knows how to export to WAV in Winamp, right?
Thanks for the responses...so basically there's not much more i can do, aside from exporting dpcm separate and mix. my only problem with that is making sure the dpcm channel aligns perfectly, is there a way to do that other than just by eye/ear?
I've tried the nsf method with not so fatso & winamp, but it doesn't seem to be any louder. most of what i do is just 2a03. I'm not too much a fan of fancy post production. i guess you could call me a"purist" in that i like the raw chip sound, i just want it to be louder!
i have also considered recording directly from nes to line in, i've jsut been to lazy to actually try it lol. Anyone done this? i'd think you could get higher volume levels that way maybe?
When you export WAVs from FamiTracker, they will always have the same alignment, no matter which channels are muted, so there is no problem putting them back together.
Rushjet1 made an NES recording of one of Javel's FTMs a while back: [url=http://famitracker.shoodot.net/forum/posts.php?page=4&id=1994]http://famitracker.shoodot.net/forum/posts.php?page=4&id=1994
Aside from FamiTracker sounding -really- damn close, the volume is no different than what you'd get from a normalized WAV export. (Even without normalizing, the output is plenty loud.)
But... as I said, FamiTracker's output is far from quiet. It's a pretty full volume with just enough headroom, in my opinion. What are you comparing against?
[quote=retrotails]I rarely master an NSF but when I do I export each channel individually and add panning, echo, extra volume control, etc. in FL Studio.[/quote]
Pretty much this. If high-quality, expensive-stereo-worthy results are your goal, this is the way to go. You can even go the extra mile and rebuild the DPCM channel in FL Studio with the source samples instead of just importing it. I promise, it's delicious. :D
Normalizing isn't necessarily a good idea. Normalizing is about peak amplitude, not about loudness (which is perceptual). And peak amplitude and loudness aren't always correlated, so normalizing two different tracks might make one track much louder than the other!
Case in point, I made some songs for a game and normalized all of them. One of them was EXTREMELY loud compared to every other track. Normalizing the whole soundtrack was a mistake!
If you decide to adjust the volume of your track, and normalizing doesn't get it to the exact loudness you want, you could always push it through a limiter. That'll at least retain the balance from the NSF! (Of course, that may be useless, or worse.) Or you can mix it as someone else suggested, in which case you can change the balance however you like.
Personally, I'd just leave the song as-is without futzing with it too much. People can turn their speakers up if it's really too quiet! And that way you don't lose any quality.
Peak amplitude and loudness are [i]directly[/i] correlated, but the measure of this correlation is different from track to track. So yes, it is good advice not to normalize every track on an album, but if you just want to make an individual thing as loud as it can be without altering the sound, normalizing is what you do.
When I make an album from FamiTracker, I amplify all tracks by the same amount so that it's consistent.
A limiter/compressor will try to make the whole track a consistent volume; I wouldn't really recommend it, because of how much it will change the overall sound (the ramping of volume as it changes is very audible).
