Working with sound levels

[jonas5000]

i notice almost every song that i record sounds very quiet when finally mixed down to an mp3 or whatever. my drums and synths/pianos are done in fruity loops and the their signal is always very strong, almost hot. my vocals end up being ok volume-wise, but the signal is always very weak. when i play around with my recording volume level, then i'll get too much of a signal and start clipping. even when it seems i get the overall mix that i want, and i think the levels are ok, the final mixdown is still a decent amount quieter than the "normal" volume levels of all of my music in iTunes. please send me through sound levels 101.

if question doesn't reveal that i'm a home recording newbie then i don't know what will. i know that what i'm dealing with here are the basics of recording, but i could use some professional direction.

[jonas5000]

btw, here's what i'm working with.

imac with 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

all instruments are done in Fruity Loops 8 on an older PC, and then i send the track files over to my mac via jump drive.

Logic 8

Rode NT2-A microphone

Yamaha MW10 USB mixer
or
M-Audio Audio Buddy Pre-Amp

...and half a brain

[antichef]

From the little I know, I can say that you should not change anything about how you're tracking/recording - you're actually doing it right if you're not pushing the gain up as high as you can get it without clipping -- that was a good idea when folks were recording to tape, but it unnecessary and even harmful/limiting when recording in digital.

Now to actually try to answer your question, I'm sure there are more elegant ways, but one thing you could do is to add a Gain plugin (utilities->gain) to your output channels (1&2) and play with that until you got the average level where you want it. But if anyone else posts with a better sounding answer - go with them

[baker_]

this isnt the best answer. i am telling you that right now.

After you bounce your project, load that file into new, blank project. If you want it louder, slap the adaptive limiter plug-in on your ouput track. You'll sort of kill the dynamics of the mix, but it will make your track louder.

[jonas5000]

yeah, i've tried the adapter limiter in the past, but i love dynamics so i try to keep those intact. this morning i was doing some recording and i noticed that when i speak into the microphone, the meter on the armed track showed a low signal, but the output track's meter was still going past the red. reason for this?

[jonas5000]

what i would really like is someone to give me their AIM or iChat name so that i can really explain to them what the dealio is and be able to send them some of my mixes to listen to so they can know for sure what i'm talking about.


my AIM is d795boy

[baker_]

i'm Bweezer19 on AIM, hit me up anytime you see me online

[guitarguy12387]

Check out this article:

http://www.bluebearsound.com/articles/levels.htm