How come rendering makes things quiter?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kerfoot32
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Kerfoot32

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When I render a song or a track down to a wav, the wav file is a lot quieter then it sounded in the project. Why does this happen?
 
It shouldn't be. What are you playing the exported wav with? The output level there is likely the issue.

Yikes! Why am I in the Reaper forum. I don't belong here. :)
 
It does it with all playback sources. I've uploaded things to soundcloud and other people complained about how quiet they are.
 
What does the output level meter at your master out bus in Reaper show?
 
what would the equivelant of reaper unity be on other players like vlc or zune?
 
Not the placement of the fader, what the meter is showing as peak dbfs output. There are many things you can do to get louder exports, but I am not sure why you perceive more volume when monitoring through Reaper.
 
-2 shouldn't be a huge noticable difference.
You could be hearing it louder just because you've got your monitors turned up.
If you have room then you could slide the master fader up a bit, but after that I am no expert in limiters and stuff
 
It shouldn't be quieter.

People telling you it's too low is not the same issue as having a different output level. When you compare the Wav of the final mix versus the project, how are you doing that?

Until you master your final mix, it's totally normal that it will be lower in volume to a finished, mastered CD or song.
 
RAMI said:
It shouldn't be quieter.

People telling you it's too low is not the same issue as having a different output level. When you compare the Wav of the final mix versus the project, how are you doing that?

Until you master your final mix, it's totally normal that it will be lower in volume to a finished, mastered CD or song.
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It is quieter. They're telling me it's too low but it didn't sound low in reaper. I do compare wavs. Like I already said I listen in vlc and zune. It's not a monitor issue either because the knb doesnt change between reaper and vlc but vlc is quieter.
 
Kerfoot32 said:
It is quieter. They're telling me it's too low but it didn't sound low in reaper. I do compare wavs. Like I already said I listen in vlc and zune. It's not a monitor issue either because the knb doesnt change between reaper and vlc but vlc is quieter.
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It's quieter than what?

Like I said, it SHOULD be quieter than a nother band's finished CD that you're comparing it to. Those have been mastered. My question was"When you compare the Wav of the final mix versus the project, how are you doing that? ". I'm sure you're doing something wrong/different when you compare your final wav to the mix in your project.
 
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Basic - you are not listening to a WAV in Reaper until you render it to WAV. I suspect once you do that, if you load that stereo WAV file into a new reaper project, you will hear it at the same volume as if you played it with anotehr WAV player.
Once you render the track to WAV, you need to MASTER it to bring the volume up to near-commercial levels.
 
I'm not comparing the wav to the volume of a commercial song. I'm comparing it to the volume of the reaper project. I want to know why the rendered wav is quieter than the reaper project.
 
Kerfoot32 said:
I'm not comparing the wav to the volume of a commercial song. I'm comparing it to the volume of the reaper project. I want to know why the rendered wav is quieter than the reaper project.
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Try this:

1 Set the Reaper master to 0.

2 Make sure there are no FX on the master.

3 Go to [File], [Render].

4 Check the box that says "Add items to new tracks in project when finished". You can find this towards the bottom of the Render panel.

5 Click [Render 1 file]

Doing this will load the rendered file into the project.

6 Solo this track and hit play. This rendered track should be exactly the same level as the unrendered tracks.
 
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