Getting Multiple Tracks to be the Same Volume

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Nola

Nola

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How do you do this if recording an album at home? It seems like every track I have is at a different volume. I guess this is what mastering does, so do I need mastering software to do this correctly?
 
If every song you have is a different volume, the mastering process takes care of that. But if they are similar material and wildly different volumes, you may want to revisit the mixes.

When mastering an album, it isn't necessary to make everything the exact same volume, you just want it to flow naturally from one song to the next.
 
Farview said:
If every song you have is a different volume, the mastering process takes care of that. But if they are similar material and wildly different volumes, you may want to revisit the mixes.

When mastering an album, it isn't necessary to make everything the exact same volume, you just want it to flow naturally from one song to the next.
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Thanks. In the mastering phase where that's corrected, is it via adding gain or volume? Isn't gain bad to add because it distorts the mix? Is it better to just push up the master volume fader?
 
Most daws are perfectly capable of mastering. While there are technical level standards, most of the differences are determined for specific genres. Some music, like edm, rarely changes its overall level from start to finish. You look at the waveform and its just a horizontal bar of sound with a jagged top and bottom. If you look at classical music then some sections hardly seem to have any level at all, and then other bits are maxed out. This kind of music has extended dynamic range, edm does not. As farview says, there has to be a flow. Ive been doing an abba live show today, and some of the show was mega loud, but then the next song was one voice and a piano, much, much quieter. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to decide your maximum volume for the loudest track, and the. Find relative quieter levels for the others. If you think the difference is too extreme, then you might need to compress the quieter ones and bring the level up a bit? If your music is similar to a well known band you know well, scrutinised their album but sticking the whole thing into your daw. Normalise it to say, -3dB and then look and listen to how each track compares to the loudest. You might find a slow ballad reaches no more than -12db. You can learn a lot by importing entire albums.
 
When you say "track", do you mean tracks in a song are all the same volume, or the (mixed) songs themselves are different volumes?
 
Compression and limiting is your friend.

If you don't want to do that, then you would need to find the quietest song, and turn the others down to match it.
 
Take a look at Ozone 11 - Izotope.

Its a mastering plugin. Its kind of automatic to an extent, but you should get your tracks close first so the software isnt doing too much.

It is often on sale or free.
 
spantini said:
When you say "track", do you mean tracks in a song are all the same volume, or the (mixed) songs themselves are different volumes?
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Wondering the same thing myself. I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he meant individual tracks in a single song mix.
 
I mean completed songs and distinctly different recordings, not tracks within the song. This is all good info. Thanks. If mastering in a daw, is there a meter reading I should shoot for on each track? I am using RMS and aiming for -16 to -12, but that's just based on something I saw on YT. I don't know if it's good information. Also, is raising the master fader okay? I think I would rather do that than turn up the gain on the master channel. When I turn up the gain, the mix sounds worse to me (like crunchier).
 
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Is it me or does music sound better with a quieter mix and turning up the volume on your interface/amp? Even when I crank the master fader it doesn't sound as good as just leaving it quiet and turning up the volume.
 
You need to keep your peaks below 0dbfs.

If you need the master level turned up, you should put a limiter on the master fader and get the volume from that.

The rest you need to adjust by ear. An rms meter will react differently than your ears do.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of specific advice we can give you, since that all depends on what you are starting out with and what you expect it to sound like when you are done.
 
Even if you're not mastering to a target level, it's good to have appropriate metering. RMS is okay, but LUFS is a better option as it accounts for the nonlinearity of human hearing. The YouLean LUFS meter is a good free option.

Most likely, you're going to have to turn something up enough to cause peaks to go over 0 dBFS. That's what a limiter is for. A typical bare bones mastering chain is an eq into a limiter. I strongly recommend an actual mastering limiter as they are designed to do the job with the least amount of hassle. A generic limiter can be used, but it might entail a lot more fiddling to get it right.
 
The basic idea is to make the volume and tonal balance for each song fit in with the rest, and also with other music of the genre. You also need to consider the delivery method. Mastering for CD is usually louder than mastering for streaming. You're not obligated to master to a specified volume unless a given release platform requires it.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
The basic idea is to make the volume and tonal balance for each song fit in with the rest, and also with other music of the genre. You also need to consider the delivery method. Mastering for CD is usually louder than mastering for streaming. You're not obligated to master to a specified volume unless a given release platform requires it.
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Do they add some type of normalization if you don’t mix to a specific volume, and if so, will that change the sound of the mix?

What mastering limiter plugins do you think are great?

Thanks!
 
Nola said:
Do they add some type of normalization if you don’t mix to a specific volume, and if so, will that change the sound of the mix?

What mastering limiter plugins do you think are great?

Thanks!
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If you master to a lower volume than a streaming service uses, they might raise the volume and limit down any peaks. That will change the sound to some degree, though it may be subtle.

I use the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 eq and Pro-L 2 limiter, which I like a lot. They're simple to use, but they have plenty of features if you want to go deeper. I've also used the Slate limiter, which worked fine. Equalizers don't necessarily have to be specific to mastering, they just need to sound good, though it's nice if they can do mid-side processing.
 
I'm a really big fan of Sonomis N-Counsel. It's great for getting tracks a dB or so closer. It's also killer-sounding, subtle, and with a little more grit if you choose. The cost of entry is almost unbelievably inexpensive, and I can stretch 60 tracks of them across the board without a single budge from the CPU. It is now a permanent fixture in every Pro Tools and LOGIC template I use. It's now a permanent fixture in both Pro Tools and Logic.
 
Do you guys think wavelab pro is a good buy to do this type of work? How are the built in mastering plugins? I qualify for the student pricing at $250 fwiw.
 
Wavelab essentials would be fine. The only thing that wavelab does that a lot of DAWs don't do is sequence and burn a CD.

If you are just looking to process the files to get them to sound like they belong together, everything you need is in your DAW.
 
Nola said:
Is it me or does music sound better with a quieter mix and turning up the volume on your interface/amp?
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quiet mix sounds better however it becomes weak when you burn it to a CD because they destroyed the format for everyone. When they master for a CD they soft clip and even hard clip with clip restoration. That is why it is very difficult to get that volume in the first place. Because the last thing we want to do is mutilate our own mixes. I figured unless I drop $8K into mastering equipment they are using I might as well send it to a mastering engineer that is worth its salt. Which I would recommend Massive Mastering.
 
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