it SOUNDS like a home recording

[little king]

well, i have a LOT to learn about mixing, i know this, but...

today i finally stopped tweaking a mix and burned a CD. right away it was that old home recording thang- it sounded good, but i had to turn my hi-fi up to 31, which would be breaking the windows if i played, say, my James Brown CD that loud.

[img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] how does one go about getting good levels on the final product? don't get TOO technical on me... if i'm missing something that can be found in the reference manual, please point the way...

thanks

[cliepe12]

a good place to start is by getting a Plugin like the L1 Ultramaximizer by Waves. This allows you to bring up the level while you avoid clipping.

You can also go and get it mastered by someone who knows what they are doing for sometimes pretty cheap.

[pk_hat]

We'd love to help, really, but your question is right up there with:

1- "which monitors should I get?"
2- "Mac or PC?"

There are pages upon pages of info on this DUC, just use the search function, as everyone has their way of doing things when it comes to producing, mixing and engineering, and evidently, your issues are directly related to those 3 things.

Bookmark the following, get some coffee going and you'll learn more than you ever thought possible, it's amazing...


www.digidesign.com/digizine/
www.studiocovers.com
www.sound-on-sound.com
www.futuremusic.co.uk
www.computermusic.co.uk
www.pro-rec.com
www.digido.com

[KamaSutra77]

They seriouslly need a FAQ thread on the DUC. My waders are wearing out!

[Nitronick]

Originally posted by KamaSutra77:
They seriouslly need a FAQ thread on the DUC. My waders are wearing out!

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Actually, someone in the PC forum started one, and Digi made it a sticky. It's about 3 pages now. You guys might want to do the same, but with Mac related issues.

Mitch

[lenf]

A resource you might want to look into is Bob Katz' new book, "Mastering Audio, the art and the science." *Very* nicely done, takes an overall view in explaining the recording/mixing/mastering process. A fun read as well.

When I searched it out a month or so ago, I found the best price at bn.com

[DIGIDUDE26]

just mix it.........don't use maximizers, and don't clip anything...........then go give it to a pro ME. You will be happy that you did!

good luck

[where02190]

Originally posted by pk_hat:
We'd love to help, really, but your question is right up there with:

1- "which monitors should I get?"
2- "Mac or PC?"

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This is hardly true. The answer is simple. Recording is a 3 stage process:
1. Tracking
2. Mixing
3. Mastering

You can either:
1. learn to master on your own by researching the subject.
2. Take your fiished mix to be professionally mastered.

Hope this is helpful.

[Fourtsian]

As a step one, import your final track and someone else's song (which is louder than your track) into PT, and see the bandwidths. I think this helps a lot.
Your track might have lots of unwanted peaks. You can get rid of those notes (with the pencil tool or something like that) and turn up the volume without compressing your track.

Hope this helps a lit bit.

[john1192]

mix, mix it again, add a little compression to the tracks that jump out too much or the ones that don't punch out enough. a little at a time. listen on different systems, reference to commercial CD's that are not extremely loud. by all means import CD's that you like and look at the waveforms but don't draw out peaks with the pencil tool. that tool is for going to sample level and removing bad pops or clicks but not for mastering purposes. in short, try making 4 different versions of your mix and putting them on the same CD. ie: vocal up (or main instrument of instrumental), vocal down, bass up , bass down. listen to your mix with and without the vocal, does it sound fine until you add the vocal ? your vocal and the other instruments may be fighting for the same space....just keep trying and tweaking a db here or there, do lots of mixes and it will start to get clearer...you need to know what you are hearing...

as far as level, as your mix becomes tighter it will get a little louder. unless you have an L1 or L2 or some hardware (Waves L2 Maximizer) or a friend that is a mastering engineer you will only be able to do so much. find someone that is a mastering engineer ( not a friend that has a big set of speakers) and ask them to liten to your mix. if you are sincere in your desire to learn, don't be embarrassed to play what you think is a bad mix for this person.

lastly, mix, mix, mix, and keep mixing

learn your monitors, play mixes on your friends systems, their cars, Good Guys boom boxes...the toaster......... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

peace john