my final mix lacks VOLUME!!!

M

mojovoodoo

New member
some songs recorded on my br-8 sound wonderful when played back through the monitors(just cheap roland powered monitors).and in order to not lose any quality,i mix down directly to a standalone cd burner(i have no computer stuff yet).the mix sounds great within my limited equipment.but playing back the cd on any regular player,or as a mp3 file,it has no serious volume.i feel good about the mix,it has enough bite ,and it certainly feels as though it has presence,BUT....still it is sooooooooo quiet!!!

is this just due to my equipment(specifically the br-8),or am i missing some crucial thing?
 
Yo MojoVOODO man:

I'm just going to take a guess at your problem. If you are burning to CD, then you have some sort of input control that, maybe, you are not adjusting to full potential?

Or, are you missing the "normalizing process?"

I mix from my Yam MD-8 to tape, a very good tape deck; and I have to make sure to set the input volume on the tape deck. If I let it go automatic, my takes on tape are quieter than I'd like.

I had some stuff mixed to CD from a plain old cassette tape and the result was pretty darn good.

So, I'd check with your CD burner people/company or review the "instruction manual."

Good luck,
Green Hornet
 
?

Is digital different than tape?

I can always get loud recordings when I mix down from my fd8 to a tape deck. I can set the tape deck VU's pretty far in the red. The worst that comes from that is a little tape compression or saturation. Which to me actually sounds kind of good on some things.

But when I have an uncompressed mix in digital with a wide dynamic range, I can't ride the meters that high going to a burner or my hard drive. Anything over 0db and it's just harsh digital clipping.

Maybe compressing the signal on its way from the br-8 to the burner would help? But too much compression sucks the life out of a song. So what can a poor boy do?

(I've gone mad with the last of my student loan money and ordered a RNC compressor-not for this purpose, but will try it out for that anyway.)

-jett rocker
 
I have had these same problems, and the only solution that I have found is to do some post-mix mastering. I usually run the entire mix through a moderate limiter. This helps bring up the volume levels. Then I'll do a little bit of EQ to sweeten up the whole mix, maybe add a bit of reverb or chorus, and moderately limit it again. That makes the mix loud enough on CD to compete with most pro-mastered CD's. Sometimes you'll lose some dynamics if you limit too much, so use it with disgression.

If you're going to make this an official public release, you might want to dump what you have onto CD and bring it to a mastering house and have them sweeten it up. A /good/ mastering house will have pro limiters and equipment to make the whole mix sound as good as possible.

Analog equipment is a little more forgiving, allowing you to make the mix a little hotter than 0db without a lot of distortion. Digital's not that friendly, and really the only way to simulate volume is to add some kind of compression. Normalizing will help make the mix a little bit hotter, but the only way to duplicate volume directly off the mix is to run it through some sort of a limiter. Anyway, that's been my experience. So just keep it below 0db and use a limiter...

B
 
can you recommend a good comp/limiter?would there be something as far as reasonable pricing?i am not in the position to pay top dollar,(actually,aren't we all on a smalltime budget?)but i like my recordings enough to want to try it.i don't want to bring it outside of my bedroom realm as far as mixing,i would rather buy the limiter.but,you know my sister has already sold a few cd's at her gigs.i wonder if anyone else can notice the difference.my sister has cakewalk studio pro,such and such.does that have any mastering capabilities?any two track stereo w/compression/limiting?
 
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