Getting consistent levels with newbie synth players

[c2thej2theizzo]

It seems everybody is going synth. I am dealing more and more with young drummers and octopads, keyboardists, guitarists with multi effects that program their own samples and sounds when listening to them through their $10 headphones or crappy speakers only to realize that they have jolted the 40hz frequency all the way up on a particular sample, or they have programmed high pitch sounding samples to be too soft etc, etc... Anything out there for normalizing these signals, other than compressing, gating, low pass filters etc, that will monitor a signal's level for these neophyte synthies? I am sick of adjusting levels for every synth sound. Any experienced sound guys out there using any good techniques, gadgets for normalizing these signals,

[fokof]

Yeah I get that a lot too.

Guys have crappy reference at home or a bass amp to set synth sounds and boost the lower octaves to the ceiling to compensate for the lack of low end of their reference, big surprise for everybody when they plug in a PA !!!

I would suggest to use an RTA on the CPU. There are plenty of free ones.
If your kit doesn't make you hear it , well , you'll 'see' it.

Avoid limiter as much as possible. It removes all the 'life' in a sound or in a song.
Dynamics are really important in music , lots of people are forgetting that.

[TimmyP]

Multiband compression or dynamic EQ, such as the TC Triple C and BSS 901 (respectively).