help please....

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Foo-bu

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i'm havinga problem with my mixes. when i look at the master VU the song normally plays around the -4db range and the highest it will go it to the -2db line. but i find that my mixes still aren't loud enough when compared to other cds. i havent tried normalizing the master tracks yet but i thought that if i did that it would just make it all too loud and clip. i might be wrong. i'm sort of new at all this stuff. anyone have any help they can give me?

thanks!
mike
 
Some compression over your two track fnal mix can bring up the level. If missused, it can also suck the life out of your recording. Experiment and use your ears.
 
normalizing itself won't cause clipping; it just brings the peaks up to 0 db.
 
Foo-bu said:
my mixes still aren't loud enough when compared to other cds.
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Turn up the volume!!!

No, wait, slap an L2 on there and squash the hell out of it. Thats the right answer.

No, really, a little bit of limiting can really help if you've got some peaks and be pretty much unnoticeable if used sparingly. But, who really cares if its as loud as other CDs???????? Shouldn't you really be asking how you can make it sound as good .

And actually normalizing in some software will cause clipping. Not if you normalize peaks to 0dB, but if you normalize RMS such that the peaks go over 0dB, you will get clipping.
 
Go through each individual track and "lop off" all of the low end that's not contributing to the audio. On all tracks that aren't either kick or bass (or really low keyboard parts) . . . do a hi-pass at 80 hz minimum. Even try it at 100. Move it back, though, if it makes it sound overly thin.

On kick and bass, make sure to remove any subsonic stuff. Try hi-passing at 40 hz and move it down to 30 or 20 if you notice a significant loss in the bottom end. You might even try low-passing everything above 6 khz on things like electric guitar or bass, but that might be overkill.

Basically, what you'll be doing is eliminating the energy of each track that isn't necessary or contributing to the overall energy of the final mix, allowing more room for that which is.
 
lol ebeam is right....good sounding first....loud sounding second.
if people have to turn up their speakers a little more...SO WHAT!
 
Foo-ba,

As mentioned to get the 'loudness' level to commercial CDs, you have go through the mastering process which usually involves multi-band compression and/or limiting. It's tricky stuff and the equipment that does this on commercial CDs is also quite expensive. However, there are plug-ins and so forth that are reasonably priced that can get you in the ballpark. Mastering itself is such an art, however, that there are many people in the business that specialize only in the mastering process - if that tells you anything.

You can read up on a lot of this information on the internet - google 'mastering compression limiting' or something like that....

Another good source is:

http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

But the other posters are right - focus on getting the sound right first - it's ultimately more important as for now, your listeners can easily just adjust the volume to their taste. As good as the best of the mastering engineers are, there is a golden rule about mastering to raise volume - you are ALWAYS compromising something else to extract more volume. The trick and the art is to minimize the impact of that compromise........
 
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jeffoest said:

As good as the best of the mastering engineers are, there is a golden rule about mastering to raise volume - you are ALWAYS compromising something else to extract more volume. The trick and the art is to minimize the impact of that compromise........
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Very well said.
 
that's the thing. i have all my levels and tracks set just the way i like em. they sound awesome its just that the overall mix seems low in volume
 
Then you're in the same boat as 90% of non-mastered recordings.

But yes, with sheer volume comes some sort of give-and-take.

Carefull with those multi-bands, though... They're VERY easy to abuse...

John
 
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