Getting Multiple Tracks to be the Same Volume

[Nola]

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.

Does anyone use CD anymore? If not, can we go back to quieter, better sounding mixes if we just want to upload to streaming sites? I know those sites do something to audio, but in general, it sounds pretty decent to my ear if i upload a wav file.

 

[Eric V]

Does anyone use CD anymore? If not, can we go back to quieter, better sounding mixes if we just want to upload to streaming sites? I know those sites do something to audio, but in general, it sounds pretty decent to my ear if i upload a wav file.

I burn our songs to CD all the time. I shoot for -14 LUFS on all the songs.

 

[drtechno]

Does anyone use CD anymore? If not, can we go back to quieter, better sounding mixes if we just want to upload to streaming sites? I know those sites do something to audio, but in general, it sounds pretty decent to my ear if i upload a wav file.

There are uses for Cd, but yes, you should focus on the mix rather than a certain output volume and establish a range of piano to fortissimo is more important in the mix as the levels, if they are too far apart will reveal a weaker sound overall. So you have to find that balance that works with the composition and is really addressed in the tracks individually even though you have to look how all of it will eventually fit with the whole composition.

 

[musicturtle]

This is what I would do...though it will take some time.

• Go back to your mixes in your DAW
• Gain stage every track in each song so that each track is reading about -12dB when the fader is set to zero(-8dB to -10dB for drums)
• Create your mix for each song with the master stereo channel peaking at about -6dB
  • This leaves headroom for mastering
  • Adding EQ/compression/limiting to the final mix can add gain and loudness to the end product
• Render your waves of each song
• Send you mixes to a mastering engineer or service OR buy Wavelab Elements or Pro and master yourself
  • Elements is probably all you need, but Pro for $250 is a great deal and has some things that are cool to work with that Elements does not
• If you decide to master yourself
  • Import your waves into a montage in Wavelab
  • All your mixes should be close in loudness, but you can check them with Wavelab Pro or with YouLean to make sure
  • Add the EQ and Compression you think each track needs to sound it's best
  • Go back and make sure the loudness(LUFS) for each track make sure they are close
  • If not, use a limiter on each track to even them out
  • Some songs/tracks may be less loud if they are ballads or acoustic tunes-this is okay
• One of the cool things about Wavelab is creating a montage
  • You load all of the songs onto a single track in order
  • But you can add effects and edit each song without affecting the others
  • Then if you want you can add the same effects/plugins/settings to every song if wanted