Low level on CD...HELP!!!!

[PowerCouple]

Heeeeeeeelllllllppppppp!!!!!
We are recording .waves to CD and they sound horrible... We edit with Sound Forge and the levels are fine (-0,3 dB) but when we record it on CD it sounds really low...
Can anyone help us? The software seems to be fine, and the CD recorder is OK too...(it´s a Plextor)...

We NEED to solve this if possible....

Thank you all!!!!!!!

PC

 

[2lim]

What you need to do is this: put the wav files into a wave editor that can adjust the actually volume levels non-destructively, and adjust them until they are high enough for your liking. I am guessing that you are burning them without adjusting the volume, and right after you record them, they usually aren't at a high enough volume for burning to CD. I hope this solves your problem

 

[PowerCouple]

Hi 2lim!!
We´ll try to do as you told us, but let us be a little ignorant... Wich software should we use for that specific job?
We have now access to Sound Forge (it saturates a lot when rising volume)
Vegas (exactly the same)
Cool Edit Pro
N-Track
Dart Pro
(we couldn´t try with those yet)
If there is another soft for that, we´ll try to get it...
Thanks a lot for your reply, we were getting really mad at our CD recorder (hehehe)

Thank you again!

PC

 

[Jon X]

If you have combined all the tracks and want to raise the perceived volume in a hurry, look into adding compression to the final mix. Be careful not to overdo it though, as it decreases the dynamics and can squeeze the life out of the sound for the sake of volume. Also there's a whole thread here from a month or two ago that goes into why volume levels could appear to be different from the wav file to the CD. You probably aren't listening to the tracks through the same exact signal path, even if you are using the CD player in the computer. Do a seach and you should find it. I know sonusman posted a few times with great info there. My point is that listening through a different setup will obviously change how the tracks sound from wav to CD and could make your problem worse than it actually is. You can try ripping wavs from CDs of stuff you want your music to sound similar in volume too (commercial CDs) and then comparing your wavs to these before burning. Also, trial and error of burning several discs in order to get the "right" mix is sometimes the last resort.

For software, if you are budget minded check out T-Racks. Not bad for home mastering and around $300. Will definitely allow you to increase the volume and improve the sound before burning to CD. I noticed a big difference right away. If you can spend more on software look into Wavlab and some of the plugins for it. I personally like the Waves plugins for this. Wavlab will cost more than T-Racks, and some of the good plugin packages can be over $1000 easy. You can also try using a compression plugin with SoundForge to see what type of results you get, but I can't remember if it comes with those types of plugins or you would have to buy them separately as well.

 

[sonusman]

Peak Level vs. RMS Level

There is a big difference between you Peak Levels on a mix and the average, or, RMS level of it. the difference can be as much as 10-12 db. In audio, this is like the difference between Mt. Everest and an ant hill.

JonX is giving you the goods here. Applying some sort of compression/limiting over the mix after mixing can really help out in getting better levels. I use Wavelab with the Waves Native Power Packs 1 and 2, and the Steinberg Mastering Edition plug in's for mastering and they really rock.

And yes, make sure you are listening to you burned CD's through the same exact signal path as the original .wav files, to include the D/A converters. You will usually find that decent quality soundcards for multitracking have better converters then your average CD player does, and of course, every converter has it own "color".

By the way 2lim, there really is no such thing as "non-destructive" DSP. Any volume changes you do in digital require recalculation of the data, and those changes create quantinization errors in the audio that need to be dealt with in some way because they produce distortion. It is a complicated matter.

I am sure though that you meant "non-destructive" as in, not effecting the original .wav file and just saving a new version of it with the DSP applied, right?

Ed