Volume Quiet when bouncing to disk in mixdown.why?

[qwex]

So I have been using Protools for about a year now and have recently become more serious about mixing down my projects. I recently finished recording a friends demo and mixing it. It all came out fairly well and we were happy with it, except that when the volume is about what is desired everything sounds distorted, which at first I thought was my monitors, but soon came to realize was that I wasn't mixing right in PT. So, I learned how to use the pre-fader monitoring or not, and now know when things are peaking out or not.

However, then I came to discover a different problem. When I get the mixes sounding about right, they are too low of a volume when I bounce to disk. I use a master fader, but I know there must be something else that I am missing. I admit to not having read through the entire manual (or really much at all) as I would rather just jump in and get my hands dirty doing, as most of us would.

Like most of you out there, I am not in this to make money, but to enjoy it and have fun. My setup is a basic 002r into a Powerbook G4.

I feel like I am missing a step or something, so any help you all can give would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Phil

[M.Brane]

If you're comparing your mix volume to modern commercial releases you have just discovered the loudness war.

Pretty much all commercially released pop/rock music these days is subjected to heavy peak-limiting in the mastering stage. It's a phenomenon that feeds on itself. If louder is better than much louder must be much better right?

You have to decide how much of your dynamics you're willing to sacrifice to the overall perceived volume. Play with a good look-ahead peak limiter (like the Massey L2007) on the master fader for while, and you'll begin to understand.

[qwex]

I am comparing to both commercial releases as well as friends who record in other programs (i.e. cubase, magix, garageband) and seem to do nothing but mix down and their volume is louder.

Is a limiter what I need on the master fader? Would compression help? Thanks for the help.

PHil

[letrev]

Yes, a good peak limiting compressor on the master buss would allow you to increase the overall loudness of the song. As the other poster mentioned, there is a trade-off in squeezing the dynamic range. Louder = louder, not better.

Best bet - hire a mastering engineer to handle leveling and final eq. Hard to get professional results working on your own mixes unless you have the training and some high-end equipment.

[qwex]

Well, I am not going to hire someone for demos. I am not a professional nor am I hoping for magical professional results, just hoping for the best results I can get.

Is Maxim an appropriate limiting plugin for this use? I received this as part of the package when I purchased my system and have been reading on it, but don't understand totally how to use it. I think I will play around with it a bit. Any luck with it anyone?

Phil

[M.Brane]

I played with the Maxim plug a bit, and it can be quite useable. I prefer the L2007 though. Not as much tweaking required to get a good sound, and it's pretty transparent as long as you don't go overboard with it.

The demo has no time limit, but you can't save your settings. The purchase price is very reasonable.

BTW limiting is basically compressing only the peaks with a relatively high ratio. Look-ahead works well for this since your average compressor is too slow to catch the faster transients.

[matthamilton72]

Hello,

I need some help. I've tried tweaking Maxim every way I can imagine for about 4 days now and can not get it to stop crackling when it attempts to limit peaks. It is actually introducing audio artifacts into my file. I'm using an iBook G4 with 1 Gig of RAM, with default settings on my preferences, but the hardware buffer is up to 1024. I'm using an MBox 1.

It seems to get a little better if I crank the release up to 2000 ms, but it is still there ever so slightly. I'm trying to just give a little bit of boost to my mix for a project for a friend. Anyone experience this problem before?

Thanks,

Matt Hamilton

[M.Brane]

Are you sure it's the plug, and not something downstream that's freaking out on the volume?

What happens if you use another limiter plug with similar settings?

I had no such problems when I played with Maxim, but then I make sure that nothing in the signal path is clipping both in, and outside the box.

[Park Seward]

I use Maxium as a final 2-buss peak limiter on the master fader and bring down the threshold just a little to tame the peaks. Make sure the ceiling is not exceeding 0 dbFS. I also usually have a compressor on the master fader too, before the Maxium. I also sprinkle some compressors around to the bass and vocals to control them.

It all is a matter of taste. By using gentle compression, you can control a track without making it sound squashed or limited. A little practice goes a long way. Reading the manual also helps a great deal.

As said before, make sure you are below 0 on all your tracks and make up the gain on the master fader.