Even With my monitors on Full Blast, my mixes arent very loud...How to fix in DAW
- Thread starter BSharp810
- Start date
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
You need to judge both your original track levels and your overall mix level using the meters on your DAW rather than judging by the perceived loudness on your monitors.
Best practice is to get your original tracks at the right level (averaging about -18dBFS on your meters with peaks allowed to go higher then, as you mix tracks together, let the mix level creep up higher. There's no rule about where your first trial mix should sit, but I try not to let this go above about -3dBFS, often a bit lower.
Then, yes, normalise to just below 0dBFS (I use -.1dBFS but others have reported problems pushing it this hard so you'll have to experiment with your system.
Finally, to approach the perceived loudness of commercial recordings, you'll have to be playing with compression and hard limiting in your "mastering" process. Use of those tools can be the subject of not just a thread but a book so I suggest some searching in the FAQs and on Google!.
Bob
Best practice is to get your original tracks at the right level (averaging about -18dBFS on your meters with peaks allowed to go higher then, as you mix tracks together, let the mix level creep up higher. There's no rule about where your first trial mix should sit, but I try not to let this go above about -3dBFS, often a bit lower.
Then, yes, normalise to just below 0dBFS (I use -.1dBFS but others have reported problems pushing it this hard so you'll have to experiment with your system.
Finally, to approach the perceived loudness of commercial recordings, you'll have to be playing with compression and hard limiting in your "mastering" process. Use of those tools can be the subject of not just a thread but a book so I suggest some searching in the FAQs and on Google!.
Bob
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Dumb question that I should have asked ages ago, but dBFS, what exactly does that mean and how does it compare to the normal meter on Reaper (since that's what I use)? I've been tracking trying to peak in the -18 to -14db range, but I guess I have no idea what the scale I'm on is and how it compares to -18dbps. I figure all else equal tracking at a more conservative level is probably good, but...
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
"dBFS" stands for "dB Full Scale". It's a scale specifically for digital applications where 0dB is the point at which digital clipping (nasty stuff) starts to occur.
I only played with Reaper for a while, but from memory most of the metering there is "dBFS". However, from memory, the master meter is a neat dual scale device with the inner numbers being dBFS and the outer ones being more equivalent to dBu. I'm sure somebody who uses Reaper (i.e. most of this forum!) will dive in and tell me if I'm wrong.
For reference, dBu is the scale most often used on analogue devices like mixers. On that one, 0dB is an arbitrary figure of 0.7746 volts and typically you can go to about +18dBu before clipping starts to occur, hence the advice to record with average levels around -18dBFS since that's roughly 0dBu--I say roughly because the exact amount of headroom varies from device to device.
Bob
I only played with Reaper for a while, but from memory most of the metering there is "dBFS". However, from memory, the master meter is a neat dual scale device with the inner numbers being dBFS and the outer ones being more equivalent to dBu. I'm sure somebody who uses Reaper (i.e. most of this forum!) will dive in and tell me if I'm wrong.
For reference, dBu is the scale most often used on analogue devices like mixers. On that one, 0dB is an arbitrary figure of 0.7746 volts and typically you can go to about +18dBu before clipping starts to occur, hence the advice to record with average levels around -18dBFS since that's roughly 0dBu--I say roughly because the exact amount of headroom varies from device to device.
Bob
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Chili
Site Moderator
Oops, I think you meant, "hence the advice to record with average levels around -18dBFS".
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Thanks Bob! That's a tremendous help! Ithought I've been doing it right all along, and it appears I have, but it's good to know a bit more. 
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
Absolutely! Now corrected in case anyone else reads this thread.
(Lovely Aussie wine doesn't seem to mix well with logarithmic functions!)
Chili
Site Moderator
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
Thanks Chili! I'll only be around sporatically I'm afraid, the new job doesn't leave me time to surf the net at work, but I'm still plugging away on my album so I think I'll be posting a bit more as I mix.