Exporting levels

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muffin
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Muffin

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Greetings,
My first post, I've been somewhat into recording for few years, never seriously, just experimenting with various instruments. During the later part of this past year I found myself researching basics on starting a home studio and ended up buying some of the basics.

My kit consists of:
Presonus Firestudio Project
Cubase LE 4(came with firestudio)
Shure Beta DMK
Audio Technica 3035 condenser mic
6 boom mic stands
12 XLR cables

I don't have much but it is a start. Sorry for the blog, I'll get on to the reason of my thread.

I've been working on recording my band recently and overall I've been relatively happy with the turn out of my recordings except when it comes to the mixdown.
When I come to the end of my project I export it as a wav and give it a listen through iTunes. When I listen to my song compared to any other songs already on iTunes(imported by CD) their levels are quite a bit higher then mine. I still have the quality, but not the volume.
I've tried raising my levels a bit, but then I start bouncing into the 'red'. I gain alittle in over exported volume, but still nothing close to pro recorded artists.

I've done some research prior to asking you and I've discovered that using a limiter/compressor gate is supposed to remedy this, but in all honesty I'm alittle unsure as to what a limiter/compressor gate is or does.

I've experimented a little while EQing individual tracks. Under 'inserts' I tried out the VST dynamics and tinkered with the limiter and compressor, but to no avail. I need to understand how to use this equipment as well as how it works(I figured their names were self explanitory, but you would know better then I).
I do apologize for my lengthy post I'm just trying to be as specific as I can about my issue. Thank-you for your time.
 
What you got is probably good, the next step is mastering!
 
Just a primer:

Compressor - Makes loud sound softer and soft sounds louder.

Limiter - Very similar to a compressor but with a higher compression ratio and reduces peaks.

Gate - Can be set to strip low level noise off a recording. Great for drums but not much use for making your song louder.

Using a compressor or limiter you can bring down the peaks that would normally cause your system to distort. After reducing the peaks you can get a higher overall level by raising the output gain.
 
moresound said:
What you got is probably good, the next step is mastering!
Click to expand...

Aw yes, mastering, the topic I know little to nothing about ha ha. Is it possible to master inside cubase? Or is used by exporting the mixdown, then mastering in some other software?
 
Just a primer:

Compressor - Makes loud sound softer and soft sounds louder.

Limiter - Basically a compressor with a compression ratio over 10:1

Gate - Can be set to strip low level noise off a recording. Great for drums but not much use for making your song louder.

Using a compressor or limiter you can bring down the peaks that would normally cause your system to distort. After reducing the peaks you can get a higher overall level by raising the output gain. The limiter should be applied to the stereo mix in this application.

Limiter walk through:

1. Set threshold - Point at which you want compression to start.
2. Use make-up or output gain to bring the mix the back up to a higher level now that peaks of your signal are not causing distortion.
 
Muffin said:
Aw yes, mastering, the topic I know little to nothing about ha ha. Is it possible to master inside cubase? Or is used by exporting the mixdown, then mastering in some other software?
Click to expand...

IMO Mastering should be done at a professional mastering studio with a professional mastering engineer. Moresound's comment is correct. Mastering engineers can do more with a stereo mix with no compression or limiting so leaving your track as is would be good if you want it to be professionally mastered. If this is just want it to be louder so it fits in on your play list then there are a few ways to achieve this at home.

Peak Limiter
Expander
Compression
 
Zeppe said:
IMO Mastering should be done at a professional mastering studio with a professional mastering engineer. Moresound's comment is correct. Mastering engineers can do more with a stereo mix with no compression or limiting so leaving your track as is would be good if you want it to be professionally mastered. If this is just want it to be louder so it fits in on your play list then there are a few ways to achieve this at home.

Peak Limiter
Expander
Compression
Click to expand...

I would love to learn so I can do it from start to finish. Of course I won't deny that a pro mastering engineer would do the job, but I would love to be able to complete the process myself.
Thank-you very much for your input, I have a fair bit more researching to do.
 
Depending upon what you intend doing with your music, you can master it yourself and there's any number of pieces of software that can help - it's important to have good headroom in your final mix to give yourself the best chance at a good final master... ie. don't squash things via compressor any more than you have to on individual tracks.

If you want professional quality, then a professional mastering engineer is a good bet, but you need to know how to give them a mix they can work with.

And incidentally, a compressor limits the dynamic range by applying a reduction ratio above a certain threshold - this will be cleearer when you research it a bit... thus making loud peaks/transients softer.

It doesn't in itself make soft areas louder.

However, once you have compressed your track, you will have extra headroom at the top end which will allow you to raise the volume of the entire track IF YOU WISH (it's not mandatory!) and that is what will make your soft bits louder, not the compressor itself...

Although you can get some interesting variations on compression which some hardware and software compressers have such as companding and expanding, which achieve this end.

Compression in itself does nothing to increase the volume level of soft sounds, which, by definition, are under the compression threshold - they will remain the same volume unless you crank the gain level.

One of the tools in the mastering toolbag is apply compression across the entire stereo mix, rein the peaks in a bit, and reduce the overall dynamic range, then crank the gain up a bit to increase the overall average volume.

There are downsides to this, however, as you look dynamism, which, personally, I like... read up on the "loudness wars" if you want more info.

Luck!
 
Muffin said:
I would love to learn so I can do it from start to finish. Of course I won't deny that a pro mastering engineer would do the job, but I would love to be able to complete the process myself.
Thank-you very much for your input, I have a fair bit more researching to do.
Click to expand...
Just side-note points --

1) "Loud" is easy. A monkey with a limiter can do "loud."

2) Let's not confuse "loud" with "mastering" (although it's typically during the mastering phase where the final volume is established).

3) The best engineers on the planet leave the mastering phase to a mastering engineer. Mastering engineers who happen to mix a record here and there (guilty!) leave the mastering to another mastering engineer.

Obviously, I'm a little biased... But the unbiased ear is one of the most important part of the mastering process.

[/SIDE-NOTE]
 
Well thank-you all very much for your helpful information, you've pointed me in the right direction. Right now the music that I've been recording is solely for our myspace so it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect. I did alittle further research on the overall volume issue and found a cheap(non-pro) program to assist it in called MP3gain. I think I'll experiment with this program a bit until I can learn more about the whole mastering process.
 
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