Output Volume

[The Guitar Man]

Hi everybody,

I have a Macbook Pro 13 inch and Pro Tools 8le with a 4 channel interface.

While working inside of Pro Tools, my audio sounds great. However, after bouncing it, I find the output level is not as loud as a professional mp3. and when turning it up through computer speakers, it starts distorting while a professional mp3. at the same volume level won't distort. I have also noticed that each instrument level has changed after bouncing.

Someone told me that I needed to just increase the output levels, but I am not really sure how to do that!

Any ideas would be appreciated!!

Thanks!!

Chase

[albee1952]

Any commercial release has been "mastered". That's the final polish that you are missing. You CAN do simple mastering yourself, and while I don't recommend that for anything you hope to have commercial success with, lots of us work on budget productions and just need to get volumes up. The one tool you need for that is a good mastering limiter plugin. I use Waves L2, others use Ozone or Steven Slate's mastering plugin, but on a budget, I think Massey's L2007 is the best bargain(I think its $89). You can download a free demo that will work fine, but won't save its settings.