Fastest way of importing and normalizing audio for 20 singers?

[Hans Tan]

Wondering what would be the most efficient way of importing 20 singers voice into a mix and having their audio levels normalized?

[msmcleod]

The fastest way is probably a compressor... however, compressors tend to colour the sound of the vocal somewhat.

Equally fast is something like Waves VocalRider (or any of the alternatives:  https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=521181   )

Personally, I'd run it through Vocal Rider first then add a small amount of compression afterwards for colour.

[Hans Tan]

Thanks. Would there be any free alternatives to Vocal Rider?

[Timothy Connelly]

Do you have each vocalist on his/her own track?  If so, send all to a bus and do what msmcleod says. Or, not sure if this is possible or not, but select all the vocal tracks and normalize. Worth a try. Not at my DAW right now.

[Hans Tan]

Yes, each vocalist has his/her own track. New to Cakewalk so not quite sure what you mean by sending them all to a bus, hopefully Google will provide some answers.

[marcL]

5 hours ago, Hans Tan said:

Thanks. Would there be any free alternatives to Vocal Rider?

There are VOLA2 and TriLeveler from SonicAnomaly, both are very good IMHO.

I also have Waves' Vocal Rider and TBProAudio's DynaRide and the 2 above do a pretty good job compared to those payed ones!

[John Vere]

You use the word normalize which is a tool used when your not happy with a track being a low level and you want to bring the level up. But all that can do is push the PEAKS to the near limit. It won't actually make all the audio even. All's it take is one popped P in a track and there goes your peak level. 

Myself I would treat each track separately and use the PC76 U in pro channels to adjust the input gain until you see the compressor working. If a track is weak you can certainly normalize it but using gain is none destructive.  I would also EQ each track.  Basically solo each track until it sounds as best as it can.   Then send the 20 tracks to a bus for further processing, reverb etc. 

[Bristol_Jonesey]

I'm with John. Normalize is the wrong tool for this type of problem. Compression is definitely the way to go

[John Vere]

By default my track templates all have that compressor and the EQ inserted to pre channel. They are turned off.  Then it's a very quick move to solo a track, open pro channel and turn them on and tweak. If you want a quicker fix than that , you should take up a new hobbie