roland vs880 recording levels

[remo17]

Please help. I have been working with my roland vs880 and doing some basic recording. Are there other levels that I should be setting to get the best playback volume. For example, I have to crank up the volume much more when playing back a sample of my recording as compared to that of a "store bought" piece of music. I know that I need to set everything as hot as possible without clipping, but it seems that I'm missing some key info. Any Roland info I can get would be great! Thanks

 

[Boray]

Compression! Try inserting the MTK (mastering toolkit effect) at the master fader. But if your VS is very old (or has an old OS), then maybe you don't have the MTK... I have a VS1680, but here is a bunch of happy VS880 users that will help you:
http://www.vsplanet.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=6&DaysPrune=30
(Just say Boray sent you... ) (Just kidding, they will be glad to help!)

/Anders

 

[malcolm123]

Please help. I have been working with my roland vs880 and doing some basic recording. Are there other levels that I should be setting to get the best playback volume. For example, I have to crank up the volume much more when playing back a sample of my recording as compared to that of a "store bought" piece of music. I know that I need to set everything as hot as possible without clipping, but it seems that I'm missing some key info. Any Roland info I can get would be great! Thanks

Those " Store Bought " cds are mastered.

Do a search on mastering and look for a post where someone may have added a link to a write up on the subject or something.

Good Luck

 

[Lopp]

Both responses are helpful.

Using compression on a final mix can help increase the overall level of the mix. In particular, the peaks are reduced to allow increasing the level of the whol mix without digital clipping. Multiband compression is often used because it allows different compression of different frequency bands. Thus, the cymbals won't get squashed along with the kick drum.

The VS880EX includes some sort of a mastering toolkit in the effects. This toolkit can help increase your overall levels. The VS880 VXpanded and the original VS880 do not have this toolkit.

Keep in mind, there is a trend to master CD's as loud as possible, even at the expense of sound quality. Therefore, trying to match the volume of a given "pro" CD may or may not give desirable results.

 

[volltreffer]

If you wanna use rather hard mix compression to get the desired loud volume you'll prolly not get along without rather hard track compression...

aXel

 

[jmproductions]

Absolutely, don't try to make your CD sound as loud as a lot of this new stuff out there. Overcompression has run rampant lately.