HELP with volume in final master

[matsukubo]

Anyone know what I can do about raising the overall volume of the final mastered file. I'm using ozone3 as a mastering tool. My mix levels are fine and sound good. All my bounce conversions are correct all the way through to the final 16 bit 44.1 mastered bounce to wav. stereo interleaved. The overall volume is half of a commercial c.d..

(I posted this question yesterday but it seems to have deleted from this forum list. Thanks to all that had answered this before.)

[MaLa]

Do you have a master fader in your session?

[Chris Cavell]

The overall volume is half of a commercial c.d..

Every commercial cd has a different volume...

So which commercial CD are you comparing it to? If you're comparing it to something Marcussen or Vlad has mastered, you're not going to be able to get it to that volume with Ozone (and do you really want to get it that loud). If it's Ludwig or Sax, Grundman or Meadows, it really depends on the album. Chances are that if it's a commercial album, there's a 99% chance one of those guys I mentioned mastered it. What I can tell you with utmost certainty is that NONE of them employ ozone in their chain for mastering.

Here's what those guys would probably respect and be able to use to produce those kinds of results:

• A very well designed room, probably no smaller than a living room in physical size, with a single pair of phenomenal monitors like B&W 800's, 801's, etc.
• 2 DAW's, one for playback and one for capture
• possibly a good linear phase EQ; waves lin eq at worst, probably more like algorithmix red or orange...generally used only where extreme corrections are necessary
• a stepped outboard eq; GML 9500, cranesong ibis, manley massive passive, sontec, etc.
• a couple of stepped outbaord comps, probably a good opto, fet, and vari mu at their disposal; cranesong STC-8, manley Vari-mu, fairchild 660 or 670, maybe an LA-2A and an 1176
• a set of converters that can be pushed hard and used as a limiter...think lavry blues or prism (when used within reason)
• a digital read ahead limiter; for this the L2 is still king and probably what every engineer I mentioned is still using
• a custom designed 100% passive console to route and control all this gear in any way imaginable

What NONE of these commercial ME's put to use are "snapshot" like EQ's and cheap digital comps. You won't see har-bal, or ozone EVER used for EQ by a seasoned veteran.

If one of these guys decided to remain digital throughout the process, we're talking probably a weiss box, a linear phase eq, and the L2.

...And I haven't even touched on the disc authoring and QC aspects of mastering yet...

BUT, if you insist on doing it yourself, make a list of the processing capability at your disposal and I'll try to describe the best possible *generic* chain you can put together with it.

*generic* because I have to make some assumptions about the tunes in general, like the mixes are pretty good, there isn't a need for widening or MS processing, parallel processing, etc. So much in how any ME treats a specific tune is dependent upon precisely what that tune requires within the context of an entire album. As a result the chain changes to meet those requirements. So, anything I tell you would be little more than a starting point...and that's just one reason why these all-in-one mastering apps are a load of bull.


Cheers,
Chris

[graveleye]

Turn up the volume knob when you play it back. Thats what people did back when records sounded good.

[matsukubo]

Thanks to all who responded! Lots to think about.
I think a mastering house is in order here...I'm focusing too much of my time and money on the technical and not the writing.
I will be leaving it to the talents of the pros for the mastering.

Cheers.

[bigbubbaj]

FWIW....

Chris Cavell is my Mastering Engineer of Choice.

He does phenomenal work.