Making my mixes louder

[Somebody]

I swear I've tried everything. I bought a Tascam CD-R burner, which has a great limiter. I'm pushing my mixes to the red.

In Logic, I am using the TC electronics mastering X, to raise the level of my mixes, but when I copmpare them to my cd collection, they still sound like 2 dB lower. Is there anything else I can do? What is the special are in making a loud master? Thanks.

[bassbuddy]

Hi Somebody..

Is your Master Fader high enough ? ...also try boosting the volume by inserting a compressor or limiter plug - in on the Master Fader. Increasing the out put on the plug will increase the overall db's in your session....

Sorry to state the obvious, just trying to be helpful.... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

kenny

[marcoustic]

Sorry to say this BUT there´s only two ways to go:

1) Get the L1/L2/Maxim kind of limiting stuff and squash your mix

or

2) Go out and find yourself a good mastering engineer!

Greets

Markus

[Peter Duemmler]

Or forget about this loudness madness and let your mixes breath and sound better than the squashed BS.
Sorry for not helping you to get your mixes "louder", but we have to fight this BS.
Me and my ears are tired of hearing these distorted square waves that are called music today.

Peter

[marcoustic]

Originally posted by Peter Duemmler:
Or forget about this loudness madness and let your mixes breath and sound better than the squashed BS.
Sorry for not helping you to get your mixes "louder", but we have to fight this BS.
Me and my ears are tired of hearing these distorted square waves that are called music today.

Peter

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">... if somebody´s reading this:

Peter´s got a point! How about some dynamics in your music?
Have you ever listened to ricky martin or the peppers? Funny game: Try and find peaks in the waveforms... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Good luck!!!

Greets

Markus

[doorknocker]

There's a discussion about this on the ProSoundWeb forum. Although I don't necessarily agree with everything said, I finally got the connection between 'Californication' and the last Johnny Cash CD, two good examples of decent music ruined by Neanderthal mastering.

Andi

[uno1234]

Sony Inflator

[Ben Jenssen]

A well balanced mix is the most important factor, I think. Not too much energy in the lows, kicks and snares that dont stick out too much. Its better to squash the dynamics of some individual tracks than to squash the whole mix.

Then multiband compression on the master. I’m no mastering pro, but a few long nights experimenting with Waves C4 and tweaking presets gave me a good understanding of the basics. I now have a very powerful mastering tool in my belt.

Then, lastly, a limiter to cut the few peaks sticking out here and there.

Then I would advise you to just accept the level you end up with. Would you trade in quality for level?

And if you own the Waves L1+, here’s how you should set it:
Select the loudest part of the song and pull down the blue arrows between the meters. This way the volume will stay the same as it limits more and more, and you can decide where it begins to suffer in quality. Then you just pull up the output level to -0.1db or so.

[Somebody]

You guys hit on my dilemna perfectly, while I push the limiter on my Tascam CD-R burner, by raising the volume on the final output, my mixes sound mushed... So I never pushed it because it sounds like isht, but the mixes end up softer. I wished I owned the L1, I tried out the demo, and it sounded great, for 10 seconds...

I think a well balanced mix is the most important thing to do, my mixes tend to be too bassy.

Thanks for all the responses.

[atlasproaudio]

IMO, it's all about small amounts of compression and or limiting all along the way. Tracking, mixing, two bus, mastering, digital limiting...which can actually be a seperate step from mastering. If very small doses are applied along the way, and this is assuming that this is applicable for the right kind of music, the compression is going to be a lot less obvious than giant amounts of gain reduction in one or two stages of the path. I'm fortunate because I still sum through an analog console and mix to analog tape (and the tape is actually compressing too), so if you count the tape I can actually compress or limit 5 times if necessary before it goes digital again and then off to the digital final stereo digital limiter. A lot of my friends who only use a DAW (regardless of brand) I find only compress twice, once on individual tracks during mix, and once in mastering (which seems to be more and more digital if not sent to a professional mastering house). This method sounds a lot more obvious and aggressive to my ears, but YMMV. Good luck.