Cubase LE 4 audio mixdown?

[brn_mcnulty908]

Before I do an audio mixdown to export a song from LE 4, I get my levels and master volume all where I want them to be. After i export it, though, it's a whole lot less loud than it was when I was listening to it in Cubase. The volume level does not even compare to those of pro studio recordings I listen to. What is going on here?

 

[Waffleness]

Before I do an audio mixdown to export a song from LE 4, I get my levels and master volume all where I want them to be. After i export it, though, it's a whole lot less loud than it was when I was listening to it in Cubase. The volume level does not even compare to those of pro studio recordings I listen to. What is going on here?

Its just the way the program exports. From there you would go on and master it. I use mp3gain (google it). It boosts the level of mp3's without re-encoding so doesn't ruin them.

Its a bit of a un-pro way to do it, but its free and sounds good to me

 

[Everybody]

Thanks for posting that question...Im using LE4 as well, and now I know what to expect when I mixdown instead of worrying. Sorry I cant help answer your question...Wafflenesses idea sounds legit tho

 

[brn_mcnulty908]

Its just the way the program exports. From there you would go on and master it. I use mp3gain (google it). It boosts the level of mp3's without re-encoding so doesn't ruin them.

Its a bit of a un-pro way to do it, but its free and sounds good to me

yeah that's kind of what I was looking for - something to just straight up AMPLIFY that shit without having to use compression and have it not sound how i want. ill check it out thanks

 

[jab2980]

Before I do an audio mixdown to export a song from LE 4, I get my levels and master volume all where I want them to be. After i export it, though, it's a whole lot less loud than it was when I was listening to it in Cubase. The volume level does not even compare to those of pro studio recordings I listen to. What is going on here?

What are your export settings? You might have it set to a very low bitrate which could cause it to sound more muffled/quiet.

 

[avatar_bc]

Same Here

Before I do an audio mixdown to export a song from LE 4, I get my levels and master volume all where I want them to be. After i export it, though, it's a whole lot less loud than it was when I was listening to it in Cubase. The volume level does not even compare to those of pro studio recordings I listen to. What is going on here?

Okay I have been using my "search-fu" for a solution to this problem for the last two days, and have come up with nil, so if I missed something could someone please point me in the right direction?

I have the exact problem as well. I would burn the exported .wav to a CD, and compare the volume level of what I just burned to other CDs, in several other Cd players, and in all cases have found the volume seriously lacking. I then exported the mix into a .wav, imported the 'mixdown' wav file into a brand new song, then opened the same file with Media Player, and played each file back to back, on the same computer, using the same monitors. The file being played in CuBase still sounded way louder and ever had a bit more clarity than the SAME wav in Media Player. By the way in both cases (the burning and just playing the wav file itself) I am using Cubase VST 5.1, and exporting to a 24-bit (yeah I know 16 bit for burning but it seems Nero converts it for me automatically) 44.1 wav file.

I loooveee the sound and the volume level I am getting in Cubase and the mix itself, is there some way I can replicate this? Is this a mastering issue (which I don't know a helluva a lot about yet)? Is my CD doomed to low volume mediocrity? Is this difference from Cubase to anything else something I am going to have to learn to live with? Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Waffleness]

Its just the way the program exports. From there you would go on and master it. I use mp3gain (google it). It boosts the level of mp3's without re-encoding so doesn't ruin them.

Its a bit of a un-pro way to do it, but its free and sounds good to me

Wow that was a dumb post from me, i'm sorry.

OP - whack a limiter on the output of cubase, and increase the input gain until you feel you have sufficient volume without ruining the sound. That will help.

 

[Norris Shepherd]

I'm not at my music computer now.. but.. i think i do something like this.

Open Cubase LE, then go to the file menu and choose 'New Mastering project' (or something to that extent)

Import the mixed .wav file.

Here you can boost the overall gain (watch for the clip lights), add a bit of compression (or a lot if you want), use the limiter, blah blah blah.

But with this 'project' type, it's mostly set up for mastering your already mixed tracks.

 

[wim van p]

If you export a mixdown in Cubase it should be as loud as you hear it playing in Cubase.

If this is not the case you are doing something wrong.

It is hard to say what it is, but first make shure that you donot boost the sound coming out of Cubase going to your monitors somewhere external.
So maybe the sound was low in Cubase all the time.

Maybe your recording levels where way to low.

Never use your outgoing bus to set your volume. Your volume should be set with your track faders. You can set them higher than 0dB because internally Cubase cannot clip. Best is to keep the outgoing bus at say max -2dB to allow some room for mastering.

Cheers
Wim

 

[NL5]

Just have Howie Wienberg master the tracks for you.

Problem solved.

 

[NinthHour]

I used to have pretty good results by using yamaha's Final Master plug in. you can get a demo of it at 01xray.com, assign it to your main output bus and hear the magic lol its got some presets that are great jump off points to help you learn to tweak it, i used to just set it to cd master 2 and it was good to go!

 

[legionserial]

Professional recordings have the perceptive volume greatly increased through mastering. Mixes are generally far quieter by comparison before mastering.

This is done by compressing the signal. What it's actually doing is reducing the dynamic range. In other words, limiting the volume of the loud bits to bring them closer to the quiet bits. This allows you to increase the overall volume afterwards. You can use a limiter for this.

However, this comes at a cost. Reducing the dynamic range too much is not a good thing. You end up with a constant barrage of sound. If you check out a lot of recent mainstream recordings, the waveform is basically a big block, almost devoid of peaks and valleys. It defys the point of having 'quiet' bits and 'loud' bit in a song (ie dynamics) if the only thing that changes is the timbre and everything's actually the same volume.

It's worth googling 'volume wars' to find out more about this.

I use this limiter...

http://www.yohng.com/w1limit.html

It's free, and it's not bad. It has one dial on it, so giving advice on settings would be ponitless.

All that said, with a home setup, you will most likely not be able to reach the volumes on professional recording without making it sound like a shitty mess. So don't be disappointed if it's not as loud as the latest CD's. You don't want it that loud anyway, that's what wrong with a lot of recordings these days.