Why is my song so quiet while theirs isn't?

[LogicDeLuxe]

Good masters usually are between -20 and -12 dBFS RMS sine. Unfortunately there are also many CDs louder than this, and in most cases they suffer quality because of this. You shouldn't try imitating those. (That Metallica album is a good example of mastering, imho)

That doesnt quite help me out here.
How does one master without a crap load of money?

Experience is much more important than the software you use. I am perfectly satisfied with Adobe Audition myself.

I took a closer look at sad but true off of that same album and found the peak level to be -3db.

Sure, you didn't load an MP3 with MP3Gain applied? On my CD it looks very similar, except it peaks at 0 dB. The RMS is about -12 dBFS sine. Your mix is about -18 dBFS, there's the difference. As you merely occasionally go above -6 dB, you really can use a limiter and boost it by 6 dB. I tried this and it sounds just fine.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

ahhh...the age-old question arises once again...

"WHY DOESN'T OUR BASEMENT CD SOUND LIKE THE BLACK ALBUM?"






#1 answer: because you aren't fucking metallica

 

[DAS19]

(D) Comparing "home brew" limited budget, limited knowledge recordings against arguably one of the most well-produced benchmark rock albums of all time, recorded by *teams* of industry professionals at every single step in the game using the greatest gear available going over every detail for months on end and expecting similar results doesn't make much sense...

This is what I would say in a nut shell.

 

[Massive Master]

I hate to even put it like that (as I get accused of being "discouraging" or "snobbish" or what not).

However - I'm a reasonably good driver. I have a reasonably nice car. But if I tried to enter the Indianapolis 500 with my car and my skills, I have a feeling (just a feeling) that I wouldn't quite qualify for the race.

I also feel that if I had the opportunity to jump inside one of the greatest and fastest Indy cars ever, I *still* wouldn't qualify.

I wouldn't qualify in *my* car because the car doesn't have the capability to win - although my driving skills are beyond the car.

I wouldn't qualify in the "Indy" car because the car is beyond my skills.

 

[masteringhouse]

Re-read Masteringhouse's post, as that's exactly what you need.

Normalizing alone won't help you here because the dynamic range between your peaks and your program average is a bit large. Tame the worst of your snare peaks with some compression or with some manual editing to lessen that disparity. Then try running that result through a limiter, pushing the volume(gain) only to where the tonal quality of the music starts to get kinda crispy sounding, then back off of that a dB or two.

Thanks G. I was wondering if anyone actually read it.

And Mr. Scrip is also correct, good analogy. But by all means give 'er a go, just don't crash and burn.

 

[NTK88]

ahhh...the age-old question arises once again...

"WHY DOESN'T OUR BASEMENT CD SOUND LIKE THE BLACK ALBUM?"






#1 answer: because you aren't fucking metallica

Thats not my question dick head. Learn to read and then try posting another response.

I wasn't aware asking about volume had anything to do with the sound quality of my recording compared to theirs.

 

[Nick98338]

Use compression.

 

[sikter]

Hmm do you know where I change that option?
I am new to adobe.

A they said this is not directly related to your ”problem” but you’ll definitely get LOUDER mix if you change this option and force Audition to mix down to peaks touching -1 or 0 depending of your multitrack session.

GO to Edit/Preferences (Or F4): There are a lot of sheets here, you have to go to Multitrack sheet and you’ll find it there.
(Those things were probably not called “sheets” but my English vocabulary is around 300 words.)

Remember! After you have mixed session and your peaks are almost 0db you don’t have any headroom for mastering afterwords.

 

[LogicDeLuxe]

Remember! After you have mixed session and your peaks are almost 0db you don’t have any headroom for mastering afterwords.

As he is trying to do the mastering in Adobe Audition, this won't be really an issue. The mixdown is floating point and therefor can not clip (though the playback does at 0 dB). In Audition you can still just turn down the volume, normalize, compress and/or limit, even in cases it goes beyond 0 dB.
On the other hand, there is no advantage in mixing that loud.
I think, the mix is just fine loudness wise. As I said, you can easily gain 6 dB in mastering the way it is and match the loudness of that Metallica example.