Sonar (want to finalize song)

[FZmontanaDF]

Ok, we have a rough copy of a song my band is doing. I want to do a final mix (it is twelve tracks). But I need to add compression and stuff to the overall song cause when I just burn it it is really quiet and doesn't sound that great. How would I do this? I tried running all twelve tracks into like Aux 1 but I don't really understand how it works. I am still pretty new to this...if you could explain that would be great.


I am using an Aardvark Q10


Thanks,
Daniel

 

[Wallygator]

Here's what I have been doing.

Assuming you have all of your tracks balance,eq and automation set the way you want. go to the file menu and export as a wave file 24 bit.

Then I open the wave file in sound forge and normalize it (in the process menu) to .2 db (peak), save that

then I take it into TRacks and master it , eq, compress, ect the whole mix .

Then burn it to a cd.

If you don't have TRacks you could do the master eq and such in soundforge.

Hope this helps !!

Good luck

 

[adam]

If you want to stay in sonar, there are a couple of things to do

Look at the main outs -- it can be pulled up in the clips view on the bottom left or in the console view. This shows the levels of the stereo outs of all tracks.

You can do a few things here:

--Look at the main out levels -- are they clipping? If not raise the fader until you are at the max w/o clipping.

--If you are clipping at only a few points, you can pick out the offending track and reduce the volume in those instances, apply a compressor/limiter, or adjust the panning.

--Add compression plug-in to these outs -- you don't need to assign the other tracks, just insert the plug in to the mains

--Also, from an eq perspective if you have the TImeworks EQ in Sonar 2 xl you can see what your mix looks like. If not, you can export to a wav, go to winamp and see you your mix looks there.

 

[crosstudio]

before you add a compressor/limiter to the main outs ensure that you've done your best to record the individual tracks well. ok, i said that, because i always say that.

then once you get the mix right with proper eq/compression on the individual tracks that need it, take a look at your peak and RMS levels on your main outs.

set your compressor (hopefully a multi-band) such that your threshold is the average level of your RMS level while the song is playing, and set the ratio as desired (for mastering, don't go past 2:1).

now add a peak limiter (look ahead) after the compressor. set the peak limiter such that it is basicly doing super normalization. what i mean by that is setting the gain on the limiter such that the loudest peak goes to 0db, then set it even higher (to taste) to get rid of peaks that don't contribute to the sound of the track.

now your mix will be plenty loud, and since you only eliminated the transients that were spikes that didn't contribute much to the sound, you'll still have nice dynamics.