Software to "UP" Volume Level of Master?

[lga5824]

Hi - I had posted a thread concerning the low volume of a song I recorded through garageband. I tried the suggestions listed in the thread, but nothing seemed to change the outcome of the volume.

Someone else told me that there is software I can download to put my master track into that will compress the sound so you can then up the volume of each track and master without peaking.

Any thoughts on this or anyone know of a volume "booster" software that someone like me (newbie and not very computer savvy) can handle with a mac, garageband and a presonus firebox?

Thanks!

Jen

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Any thoughts on this or anyone know of a volume "booster" software that someone like me (newbie and not very computer savvy) can handle with a mac, garageband and a presonus firebox?

Jen,

It's called a "limiter", which is really just an extreme form of compressor. My favorite limiter plug out there is Finis by Roger Nichols Digital, and their new V3 is even mo' betta' than the version I use.

That said, though, Jan, volume maximization is a skill process just like anything else in this racket. Don't expect to just go out and buy a piece of software, plug it in and have it magically do both the quality and quantity you may desire. Much is going to depend upon the quality of your tracking and mixing to begin with, and also the best volume maximizing done by the pro mastering engineers is usually a multi-step process involving incremenetal boosts via compression, interleaved with sound tweaking via EQ or MBC, followed by final limiting (among other alternative tools and tricks sometimes used.)

You can start by learning your way around using a limiter alone, but learn the limitations of your mix. By that I mean use your ears to determine just at what point you are sacrificing sound quality for volume. That is almost sure to happen at some point where your sound will just plain start to sound "pushed" and kind of artificial...especially in your genre. You have a beautiful voice, and you kind of music needs to keep some dynamics in order too keep it's soul. Please don't sacrifice it just to be louder than you really ought to be.

G.

 

[Massive Master]

but learn the limitations of your mix. By that I mean use your ears to determine just at what point you are sacrificing sound quality for volume.

Word. A monkey with a limiter can make any recording as loud as any other. How good it sounds is up to the mix - and the monkey's ears.

 

[lga5824]

You're not calling me a monkey, are you Massive?

Thanks for your feedback G. Much appreciated. I'm definitely not trying to compete with the master engineers of the world and get my stuff to sound radio-ready. However, I am concerned about my song being at much of a lower volume than the others I have recorded. I'm going to post it on this site the next couple of days and let you all tear into me again (kidding) and get everyone's feedback on the mix.

Once I get people's thoughts on it, I can take it from there and see if I even need to go bigger with it.

Thanks!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I'm definitely not trying to compete with the master engineers of the world and get my stuff to sound radio-ready. However, I am concerned about my song being at much of a lower volume than the others I have recorded.

It's understandable that you might want to bring the overall volume up, and very reasonable not expecting to compete.

I'm not saying it's impossible for you to compete, especially in the classic rhythm and blues genres which do tend to be more dynamic and natural anyway. But - and this is an ooooolllllllddd and very controversial subject that I really don't want to rehash or debate in detail here, just kind of summarize for your edification - there's a LOT of pro stuff today in all genres that get pushed reallllly hard against the wall, volume-wise. Whether one agrees with this fad or not, pretty much everyone agrees that such radical pushing is not something everyone can easily do as well as the Big Boys.

The problem is everyone expects to - or at least wants to - just be able to stick their home productions in the middle of an MP3 playlist on their iPod along with these pro recordings and not have it sound like it's a different volume. This is not always easy to do without significant compromise of the actual sound quality of the song. It's a matter of personal taste and compromise of how much one wants to sacrifice one for the other (in either direction). Entirely your choice.

I've heard the kind of work you do and I just ask (as a personal favor, if nothing else ) not to be too tempted by the Devil of Loudness . I'd much rather hear your stuff 3dB quieter than the next song in my playlist if that means keeping the soul of the production intact.

G.

 

[lga5824]

I've heard the kind of work you do and I just ask (as a personal favor, if nothing else ) not to be too tempted by the Devil of Loudness . I'd much rather hear your stuff 3dB quieter than the next song in my playlist if that means keeping the soul of the production intact.

G.

You got it, my friend.

 

[LemonTree]

I'm with Glen all the way on this. I'd rather reach for the volume control and manualy turn up a good mix with a wide dynamic range than hear something that's been squashed to death.

It's just so difficult to be subjective with your own mixes when it comes to limiting and compressing. Unless you really understand what you are doing it's all to easy to make things sound worse by trying to make them sound louder.

 

[CoolCat]

i use waves lite that was free with a purchase.
its my first, so no comparison of other software to offer.

Wave lite visually shows how this "limiting", they call it Leveling on mine, anyway..it can really make it obvious what everyones talking about squeezing the waves to a flat "blob" almost, while increasing volume.

its got a bunch of things, I'm not sure of, that adjust volume too like Normalize and some dynamics active graph, and a change gain processing (that works with out squashing as much).