Why do my mixes sound low?

[Greykitkat36]

My band recorded fine and the mix is crystal clear and sounds amazing. However, I have to turn up the volume up more than I would have to on a regular cd. Why is this so?

[Blue Bear Sound]

Because Mixing is not the last step in the chain..... Mastering is.... preferably by a qualified mastering facility (for more serious projects!)

[TexRoadkill]

Try some limiting and maybe compression on the mix. Make sure you don't have too much bass or low midrange eating up all your headroom.

[Massive Master]

My hat's off to you for NOT going for sheer volume in the first place, though.

It's nice when "crystal clear" and the like is higher on the list...

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com

[The Seifer]

*gives cold lifeless stare*

the only way to make your mixes loud is to pay blue bear or massive master to do it trust me

[StevenLindsey]

Maybe you're not optimizing/maximizing your INPUT levels?

[Gidge]

Id like to hear this crystal clear and amazing mix.......

[bsanfordnyc]

Run your mix through Soundforge.

You can do a number of things to your final mix with it, including making it louder than God (if that's what you want).

You will be able to get decent results with just a little bit of practice.

Of course, these results won't match a profesional mastering house, but your mix will sound 10x better than it probably does.

[Greykitkat36]

thanks for the input. I was thinking it was because of mastering, but I think when Im mixing down I dont have the levels loud enough. I didnt turn them up because I was afriad of distortion.

[Greykitkat36]

how much does it cost to get mastering done?

[Massive Master]

Depends on where you go...

There's a rate sheet at my site... Most mastering sites have some sort of rate sheet if they deal with remote mastering & mastering by mail.

You'll find rates from $10 per song (watch out...) up to and beyond $150 per hour for top-flight rooms & engineers.

John - www.massivemastering.com

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally posted by The Seifer
*gives cold lifeless stare*

the only way to make your mixes loud is to pay blue bear or massive master to do it trust me

*yawn* Same old rhetoric.........

[kesterdevine]

Can anyone share with me the best procedure for making songs louder once they are mixed? Because I am new to digital recording, I tend to air on the conservative side with tracking volume and mix volumes. But I get a pretty decent, clean sound. (maybe not pro quality, but good for a home recording.)

I have Sound Forge, but I am still very inexperienced using sound softwares. What technique is the best for simply increasing volumes in general? Some basic rules of thumb would be very helpful.

Also, what is the best software/technique to use to bring the volume of several songs to the same level.

The things I am working on are not for an official release (more for demos and learning purposes) so I'm not really in a position at this time to hire a mastering engineer. That said, I would like to thank Blue Bear and John Scrip for the very helpful advice they give here and on their websites.

Any advice or links to articles on this topic would be very much appreciated.

THANKS,
Kester

[mixsit]

"Can anyone share with me the best procedure for making songs louder once they are mixed? "

IMHO this should start in the mix phase. Since this primarily comes down to control of dynamics, the first place to look is at the peaks in the mix. Particularly if there are transients well above the rest of the mix that do not add a lot in the way of sound quality.
Trace back to the source first -the tracks-. Any control at the track level is processing you won't have to do to the whole mix. Anything left to a peak limiter on the mix is punching holes in the whole mix for the sake of one or a few stray tracks.
If you're working in a wave editor it's easy to spot these. Very often some peaks can be reduced without effecting sound quality.
Try you best fast limiter on the worst strays first, and work your way back down to whatever might stick out next.
As you remove the peaks, the volume can be brought up. But remember to keep A/B'ing with/without the processing, but with the average volumes the same! The louder one may always sound better at first, but at some point, the more processed one will start to sound like shit, and you now know you have gone too far.

Another avenue and step in the progression is low ratio compression.

Originally posted by Greykitkat36
thanks for the input. I was thinking it was because of mastering, but I think when Im mixing down I dont have the levels loud enough. I didnt turn them up because I was afriad of distortion.

Are you talking about final levels or track mix levels?
Set you meters for peak-hold, bring the mix up untill it hits digi-zero, then pull it back a few tenths.

Happy hunting.
Wayne

[distortedrumble]

one thing i've noticed on my mixes is that i would rather it be full sounding than just loud. i ended up putting music together for a ballad on friday and I think its the best thing I've mixed to date. it sounds great on my monitors and tried it out in a friend's car (factory cd player) and it came through beautifully. the chick i made it for loved it and so did other people who heard it...the first question out of their mouthes was "where did you record that?" granted if you A/B test it with a professionally mastered song, it would be different...but if thats all your listening to then most of the time you dont notice its not as loud as long as its full sounding.....hey massive master? you need 140 to master one song? its 4:34. lol

[Massive Master]

That does come up once in a while... I always cut some sort of deal...

It's all about the setup - Just like recording drums. It takes three hours to set up the kit and the studio to record one song or ten.

With mastering several mixes that at least sound "similar," one song's setup is usually pretty close to most of the songs in a project (the general "shaping" anyway).

Then there's the fixed expenses... Printing (PQ's), discs, postage (included), etc.

But yeah, as long as I'm not too backed up, I always slice a chunk off if it's just one tune...

JS -