Final Mixing for Soundcloud (newbie vs the loudness wars again...)

[Btyre2013]

Are you sure you mean LUFS and not simply dBFS? LUFS is a type of average level, not a peak level. A file at -1LUFS would be horribly compressed/limited/clipped.

I'm very sure, cheers. -1LUFS on PEAKS only is what was meant by the comment.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I'm very sure, cheers. -1LUFS on PEAKS only is what was meant by the comment.

But LUFS is by definition an average measurement. It may be a LUFS meter, but I bet the correct unit for the peak level is simply dBFS.

 

[Btyre2013]

But LUFS is by definition an average measurement. It may be a LUFS meter, but I bet the correct unit for the peak level is simply dBFS.

no you are wrong, LUFS is simply a different scale of measuring volume, in both average level and peaks, I want you to go back to my original comment and work out how 'ceiling' relates to peaks, I thought it was obvious, cheers.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

It wasn't obvious, but that's okay because this reminds me to try out the LUFS metering in an updated DAW I use.

 

[wmalan]

well,
whenever i play back a tune on soundcloud, or any other streaming service,
if it's too soft compared to other ones,
i just turn it up.

it is dirt simple, to turn the volume up.



usually, what i find is that the softer sounding songs, cranked up, sound WAY WAY WAY WAY better than the slammed ones.

they usually have good dynamics, better sounding mixes, and don't hurt my ears after a while, like most of the other LOUD MASTERED SONGS do,
with very few exceptions,
even on pro material.



now if you want your stuff to sound LOUD just to compete with the LOUD GROUP,
then you have to learn to master your material.


you can either pay a pro to do it (highly recommended) or do it yourself (i've heard more bad home mastered material than any other issue that exists).

As the OP, I think the best advice for me lies in this last post. It's enough for me to write a song, practice all the parts (i do it all), then record all the parts (myself) to hopefully make a decent tracking, then mix it for my ears (myself). The "mastering" part is yet a whole other level that I don't want to attempt. I did find that using light master buss compression and limiter with the output closer to -1db gave it enough lift for it not to be so faint compared to so many others.

The comment about the random song blasting after or before is what got me here on this topic. At first, my thought was if someone was perusing the site for music and happened upon my songs, they would be lost in the noise. The reality is I'm going to put them there so if I want someone to hear them, most likely it's because I directed them there. Now to get off my duff and put them up there. ;-)

Great advice all!

 

[Free Spirit]

Basics to follow?

I'd definitely add some mix buss compression that does like 1-2 dB gain reduction. It's easy to overdo it though.

Regarding loudness, just make sure the peak level on the master track is around -4 dBFS and you'll be fine.

A lot of people online normalize their mixes and so they blast you in the face. Quality suffers somewhat along with normalizing though because you raise the noise level compared with the rest of the mix.

Mastering is much more than just loudness though and can actually be done super cheap and instantly with websites like LANDR and WaveMod.

It's not a professional mastering engineer but it's damn better than most of us can do at home and you receive your track back immediately.

Hope that helped!

 

[Bobbsy]

Gotta say, if a few dB of normalising is enough to give you problems with your noise floor then there's something very wrong with the rest of your system.

 

[mjbphotos]

I'd definitely add some mix buss compression that does like 1-2 dB gain reduction. It's easy to overdo it though.

Regarding loudness, just make sure the peak level on the master track is around -4 dBFS and you'll be fine.

A lot of people online normalize their mixes and so they blast you in the face. Quality suffers somewhat along with normalizing though because you raise the noise level compared with the rest of the mix.

Mastering is much more than just loudness though and can actually be done super cheap and instantly with websites like LANDR and WaveMod.

It's not a professional mastering engineer but it's damn better than most of us can do at home and you receive your track back immediately.

Hope that helped!

Welcome to the HR forums - you instantly disqualified yourself from giving advice by recommending something like LANDR.