How to get levels up to CD standards

T

tsphillips

New member
First of all, thanks for all the help on here. It has helped a great deal.

I have enough songs to make a demo and start dropping it around town for gigs.

But much to my surprise my levels on a CD suck.

If I have the levels set on the various tracks to the stereo master level only goes from green to orange here and there and never makes the red marks come on at the top, then the actual level of the wav I export to are way too low.

I can crank the stereo and it sounds fine. But on my Sony walkman CD player I can barely hear it at ful volume, where commercial CDs are never played at full volume.

How do I get this songs to be loud enough without distorting by cranking all the levels??

PS I use Cakewalk 9
 
Generally, you are going to need to compress/limit the wave files to get them to commercial levels - since that's generally what they do to commercial CD's. This mostly falls under what is called "mastering" of the CD. If you're willing to spend a couple of bucks, you can probably get a complete CD professionally mastered for < $500.

If you want to DIY, you will need some software toolds. Sound Forge comes with a plugin called the Wave Hammer that is pretty good for this.

Another choice is Ozone.

The best, however (IMHO) is the L1 Ultramaximizer from Waves. (Start saving your pennies, though.)
 
Heipä tsp

Yes. The L1 Ultramaximizer is brilliant software.

Also, try and eq each instrument so that it has its own place in the frequency spectrum of a mix and use subtle panning. By having clearer instruments and voices the level will also magically go up. Clarity is everything.

This is the trickiest of areas and it can be disheartening to get a disappointing master when you know just how much better it should sound. The best tip I ever had about mastering was to mixdown with absolutely as low a volume on your speakers as possible. You will find that if you can hear every instrument in a mix at a very very low volume, it sounds great when you turn it up. Good luck.

Jan
 
Janic said:
The best tip I ever had about mastering was to mixdown with absolutely as low a volume on your speakers as possible. You will find that if you can hear every instrument in a mix at a very very low volume, it sounds great when you turn it up. Good luck.

Jan
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Janic - I'm not sure I agree with this. Bass frequencies do not transmit well at low volumes. If you mix with a very low volume, you are quite likely to boost the bass too much, and it will sound terrible at normal levels. Generally I have been led to believe that ~ 85db was the recommend level for mixing.

If you what you meant was to mix at normal levels, but then test it at low levels, then I stand corrected. I ofter "check" my mixes at low volumes just to be sure they still sound good, but you shouldn't do your mixing at these levels.
 
You DARE question me, dachay2tnr?!

8^0

I'm just spee.. I ca.. Wha..

Hmm. But maybe you're right.

I have a great pair of Genelec 1029 and the subwoofer and so maybe that's why it works for me.. Give it a shot though. It made my mixes so much better.
 
I agree with dachay, it would make negate your multiband EQ, to mix you have to hear all the detail come through, all your stuff low in the mix would disapear. Janic, you might get away with it cos you have a sub dog but even so, it is not a method I would recommend using unless its just to check your mixes at lower levels.
 
well

in my case there is usually only ONE instrument.

I am recroding solo acoustic guitar pieces. Sometimes guitar with vocals. Once in a while it will be two or three guitars. But usually it is one. I use two mikes on the guitar and two on the vocals so I can control the warmth of one mike and the highs of the other. So, I will have 4 tracks, with the vocal pretty much panned as mono and the guitar either hard left and right, or panned to be a little heavier in one speaker with the vocals slightly off center in the other speaker.

I simply want to be able to mix the levels, export to .wav, and then open it in wavelab or Nero's wave program and say "ok, now boost the level of the overall wave."

Why can't I do that?

I mean, it makes sense to me that you can overdrive the source (cakewalk's levels), but does not make sense to me that you can not then increase the overall wav outside of cakewalk. If I were doing a live run from cakewalk to a cassette deck I could have the cakewalk levels set properly, and then boost the input on the tape recorder. I do that all the time, works fine.

WHY can't I boost it on its way to a CD?
 
Re: well

tsphillips said:

I simply want to be able to mix the levels, export to .wav, and then open it in wavelab or Nero's wave program and say "ok, now boost the level of the overall wave."

Why can't I do that?
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You can. That's what we've been telling you. That's what the L1 does (or the Wave Hammer, or Ozone). They are plugins that you use on the exported wave file, and BTW.Wavelab is an excellent host for them.

However, since apparently you already have Wavelab, you can try the tools that come with Wavelab - such as the multiband compressor or the VST dyanmics. These plugin tools can help you to get the volume higher.

The problem with comparing this to an analog system is that in digital audio you can not exceed 0 db. Digital distortion is an ugly horrible thing; whereas analog distortion can actually sound quite good.

Your wave file (as it is exported from Cakewalk) most likely has peaks that are hitting 0 db. These are preventing you from raising the volume, since if you did those peaks would then exceed 0 db. So, you have to reduce those peaks (compress them). By squashing the peaks, you have room then to raise the volume of everything else.

The tools to do this are compressors and limiters (e.g., L1, Wave Hammer, Wavelab Multiband compressor, etc.). This is done to all virtually all commercial CD's. You record. You mix. And then you Master. Mastering includes a lot more than just boosting the volume - but that is a part of it.

That's two troublemakers on my list now.
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So is this a good thing or a bad thing to be on your list?? :D
 
How weird, and inexpensive, is that? You can record the song to your cassette deck and then record that back into Cakewalk and you'll have a much pumped up master! Maybe I should give it a shot!! But really tsp, see if you can't get Waves' L1. It's absolutely brilliant.

As for the list, my lawyers are working on it right now. Well, that's what Katrin, my nurse said when she came round this evening to give me the medication and lock the door.
 
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