Sound Levels

L

L'espion Noir

Member
Hi guys
i record in midi into cakewalk 9 then export it to convert it to audio
my question is how are the sound levels mixed.
i did the export thing but when i burnt it on CD the levels where a bit (well a lot ) off
are the sound levels recorded as they are on my keyboard during the mixdown
are they recorded as they are in the consol view of cakewalk
or are they recorded as they are in the control panel of the Aardvark Q10 (is there a difference)

Or do i need a mastering software to mess with those levels

thanks for any help
 
Or do i need a mastering software to mess with those levels
Click to expand...
If you want your mixes to be close to the volume of commercial CD's, you are most likely going to need some type of compressor/limiter/volume maximizer.

The Waves L1 Ultramaxizer is great for this (this is a plugin that can be used in Sonar). I also like the WaveHammer that comes as part of Sound Forge. The WaveHammer can also be used as a plugin within Sonar, but if you purchase Sound Forge you will probably want to do your mastering in that program.

One other that comes to mind is Ozone. Ozone is an all-in-one mastering plugin that also includes a volume maximizer (among several other mastering tools such as eq, reverb, exciter, etc.). I can't speak to the quality as I've never used it. It can also be used within Sonar (or any other program that accepts DX plugins).

Most of these probably have some type of download trial versions available.
 
thanx dachay2tnr
question: i might purchae Cubase SX , will any of these software listed above work well with both CW and Qbase

Thankx
 
I am not very familiar with Cubase, but as far as I know it adheres to the VST standard, whereas Sonar follows the DirectX standard. All of the above software is DirectX based.

There are, however, programs called wrappers which allow you to use VST plugins in applications that support DirectX. I imagine that the reverse exsits as well, that would allow you to use DirectX programs in VST. I can't comment on how well they work, as I've not used any myself.

Can I ask why Cubase AND Sonar? They seem to both be multi-track recording programs. If I were going to buy another program in addition to Sonar, I would go for Wavelab. However, I'm interested in your reasons for looking at Cubase.
 
no particular reason
i just put my lab back together and was planning on getting
Cubase SX when it came out
i have CW9 which came with Aardvark q10
and used to run CW8 before disassembling my recording corner

i'm looking into VST and DX to see what the differences are

wavelab 4
 
I hope I am not wrong here But I cut a CD from a recording made with sonar and to get the volume close to cd level after converting to a wave file I went to EDIT Audio and used the 3db louder a couple of times It worked pretty well for me try it and see
 
Belvee said:
I hope I am not wrong here But I cut a CD from a recording made with sonar and to get the volume close to cd level after converting to a wave file I went to EDIT Audio and used the 3db louder a couple of times It worked pretty well for me try it and see
Click to expand...
Adding +3db is not really the right way to boost the volume of a mix. In many ways, that approach is similar to normalizing the mix, only worse.

The "perceived" volume that we hear a song at is the *average* volume (RMS) of the mix. However, what limits us from simply making the mix louder are the peak volume within the mix. The loudest that you can make a mix (without using compression) is the point at which your highest peak hits 0db. This is what normalizing does. For example, if your highest peak is minus 2db, normalizing will simply add 2 db to the entire mix. (Note, in this same case, if you were to add +3db, your peak would exceed 0db and cause it to clip). However, even after adding the 2 db, your *average* volume could still be quite low.

To overcome this you need to somehow raise the average volume, and since the peaks within the music are what is limiting this, you need to lower the peaks somehow. This is done through compression. In essence, through compression you "squash the peaks" (i.e., create less of a volume differential between the loud and the soft passages), which then allows you to increase the overall volume of the mix.

Adding 3db will of course make the mix louder, but it will only work in cases where your peaks are less than -3db, otherwise it will cause the mix to clip. (This is probably an indication that you may be tracking too low as well.) Once you have raised your peaks to 0db, the only way to further increase the volume is to compress the peaks.
 
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