I love it LOUD!

P

Pedro

New member
Hi,

I have a set-up with a Pentium 350 mHz with Soundblaster Live Platinum running Cubase 3.5. I also have a Rode NT-1 and an ART Tube pre-amp.

I am not satisfied with the output volume of the songs I mix in Cubase, it is just too low. How can I get high volume (without clipping)? I have heard of a plug-in called maximizer or something, any clues?

Thanks

Pedro
 
The Waves L1 Ultramaximizer.

Yes, it will let you get it loud. But if you don't know what you are doing with it, it will also kill the dynamics too. Just a warning... :)

Steinberg also has the Loudness Maximizer. There are a handful of other compressors out their too that are designed for mastering puposes.

You know, a while back I was flying in some CD tracks to the hard drive so I could have them for comparison on the same D/A converters while mastering. I discovered stuff like how the RMS level difference between Tracy Chapman songs, and Everclear songs is about 6db, with Everclears being the louder.

But you know what? The Everclear CD didn't sound anywhere as good as Tracy Chapmans. Gaining all that extra level on a mix sometimes comes at a price. Usually, the louder stuff is harder to listen to for more then 2 songs at a time before hearing fatique comes in.

If you are not releasing your stuff through a big label, and have some record company dipshit worrying about your CD sounding as loud as everything else out there, you may want to live the lower volume as the fidelity and dynamics tends to be preserved a lot better then trying to squeeze everylast .1db you can out of it. Of course, you may like that overly compressed sound, and not care that people won't want to keep listening to your stuff because the insistent loud volume drives them nuts. In which case, SLAM IT BABY!!! MAKE IT LOUD!!! COMPRESS THE HELL OUT OF IT!!! :D

Ed
 
Thanks, I'll check it out.

Do you have any hints on how to get the highest level in there in the first place just using Cubase 3.5? I haven't got any compressor yet (I think the new version of Cubase has one built in).

Is it possible to have a real time digital compressor which compresses the signal as it gets recorded? Once it has clipped I guess compressing won't do much good.

Thanks

Pedro
 
Man, you got a loaded question about getting the hottest level to the drive. I will sum it up like this, if your mix is good, it will record hot. But getting a good mix really takes a lot of know how, and I don't think even 1 book could cover all the variables.

As far as I know, the are no real time plug in's that work while recording to software. Sorry...

Don't be scared off by trying some compression for mastering. Just be aware that mastering is one of the hardest arts in recording to master (all pun intended... :) ). Just expect that you will probably mess it up pretty bad for a while until you get better at using one.

Good luck.

Ed
 
Pedro,

It seems to me that compression on some of the individual tracks (starting w/ drums, vocals, bass) would be a better place to start than getting a mastering compressor. So why don't you spend the money on upgrading to the latest version of Cubase, which has compression (and much more). Then after you've made a great mix with controlled dynamics, you can worry about overall mastering compression.

Rev E
 
I've got T-Rax and once you learn how to tweak it you can make recordings very loud. You have to watch it though cause you can really do some damage with it as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top