Adding Volume

[Birdinator99]

A bit of a general question here. Anybody have some basic tips for simply adding volume to either individual tracks or the mix as a whole, in either the mixing or mastering stage? My recording volume from my keyboard won't go any higher without clipping, as well as most of my track faders and the master fader.

I have to max out my playback volume (speakers) to get to a comfortable listening volume, and I know that's not right!

[The-iMortal]

At 8/5/12 09:09 PM, Birdinator99 wrote: I have to max out my playback volume (speakers) to get to a comfortable listening volume, and I know that's not right!

To get overall loudness of a track, the mix must be balanced well, and then the mastering plays a huge part. The message below is taken from a PM I sent to somebody who had a similar problem:

A mixdown export should not peak over -3dB, but should peak in between -6dB to -3dB. A little lower is fine, but don't go higher than -3dB, as the dynamics are required for the mastering engineer. That does not mean you have your volume set at -6dB, it means that the volume metre should not go higher than -3dB. If you have a loud mix, you may have to turn your master volume to -10dB or even lower.

The loudness is handled in the mastering process. However, unless the mix is good, the mastering engineer will not be able to bring a good amount of loudness into your track. Stereo separation also produces perceived loudness, and this technique is applied in the mix, not the master.

So after your mix is exported as a .wav file (24-bit), and it is not peaking over -3dB, you bring in this wave file into Cubase. Now you will apply mastering effects. iZotope Ozone 5 is a fantastic mastering suite, but costs quite a bit of money. You can get cheaper or free versions of the effects contained in Ozone though. I'll give you a brief rundown of the tools. Mastering is not my strongest point, but I know how to do a B-grade master.

- Limiter: limiting is compression with a ratio of 10:1 dB or higher. Basically, what a limiter does is boost the volume of your track, but limits the peaks down to the desired volume. Therefore, your track will not clip at all. However, a track can sound very squashed without clipping. A mix exported at the proper levels for mastering can usually be hit with the limiter with around a -8.0 dB threshold. Set the margin to -0.2 dB (or thereabouts, depending what sounds best). You can also mess around with the other settings to see what you can produce.

- Equalizer: even though you've probably done heaps of EQ'ing in your mix, applying a small amount of EQ change on the master is good idea. Just cut the brightness until it sounds good, and do a small cut around 20 hz to clean up the low end of your track.

- Harmonic Exciter: the harmonic exciter in Ozone is like a smoother version of multi-band distortion plugin. I would not recommend applying a regular multi-band distortion plugin on your master. Anyway, what this does is adds harmonics to your track. It adds more to your track, making it louder and beefier. Apply in small doses though!

- Dynamics/Multi-band Compression: Well, I'll be honest here, I have no idea how to use a multi-band compressor on a master properly, so I can't give you any tips on this one.

Ozone also comes with other features, such as reverb and stereo imaging, but these are usually better applied on individual tracks in the mix.

That all may seem complicated. If you don't want to go through all that crap, here's a brief rundown on how to sort out your volume problems in a giffy, but not giving you the best results:

1. Export mix as a .wav (24-bit) and make sure it doesn't peak higher than -3.0dB.
2. Import the .wav file into Cubase.
3. Apply a limiter of any sort and tweak till you have desirable loudness.

This way you have a limiter blocking all clipping, which is absolutely necessary.

I hope this helped!

[Birdinator99]

At 8/5/12 09:15 PM, The-iMortal wrote: - Limiter: limiting is compression with a ratio of 10:1 dB or higher. Basically, what a limiter does is boost the volume of your track, but limits the peaks down to the desired volume. Therefore, your track will not clip at all. However, a track can sound very squashed without clipping. A mix exported at the proper levels for mastering can usually be hit with the limiter with around a -8.0 dB threshold. Set the margin to -0.2 dB (or thereabouts, depending what sounds best). You can also mess around with the other settings to see what you can produce.

The mastering limiter I use only has "threshold" as an adjustable parameter -- could you explain what the "margin" is?

Previously I have set the threshold at around -0.2 dB to prevent clipping, but that's where you suggested to set the margin. I'm a little confused.

[The-iMortal]

At 8/5/12 10:55 PM, Birdinator99 wrote: The mastering limiter I use only has "threshold" as an adjustable parameter -- could you explain what the "margin" is?

Previously I have set the threshold at around -0.2 dB to prevent clipping, but that's where you suggested to set the margin. I'm a little confused.

The lower the threshold, the louder your track will sound. Don't overdo it though, otherwise your track will sound extremely squashed. The margin is the peak. So if you set your margin to -0.2, your track will not exceed -0.2 dB. However, I've found that setting the margin to -0.3 dB is usually a better choice.

What limiter are you using?

[Birdinator99]

At 8/5/12 11:01 PM, The-iMortal wrote: What limiter are you using?

http://www.kreativsounds.com/kjaerhus-classic-master-limiter /

I assume the meter on the right shows the peak, but it displays positive dBs, so how can I achieve -0.2 dB? Or, is that meter showing how much is being compressed (in dBs), and the actual value of the peak is not given?

[The-iMortal]

At 8/5/12 11:53 PM, Birdinator99 wrote: I assume the meter on the right shows the peak, but it displays positive dBs, so how can I achieve -0.2 dB? Or, is that meter showing how much is being compressed (in dBs), and the actual value of the peak is not given?

I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say that meter is showing how loud the signal's output is. To be honest, I'd recommend using a different limiter. Try out a few free ones, and see which one you like best. Each limiter gives a different sound, even if the same settings are applied.

[Birdinator99]

I did some looking around and found this nice and simple limiter. I found decent results (much louder) with the settings you see here in the picture, although I'm not sure about the release time -- It defaults to 200ms.

I assume that the "ceiling" is the same as "margin" or "peak"

Also, if I hear a little distortion here and there, should I raise the threshold to remove it?

[The-iMortal]

At 8/6/12 03:02 AM, Birdinator99 wrote: I did some looking around and found this nice and simple limiter. I found decent results (much louder) with the settings you see here in the picture, although I'm not sure about the release time -- It defaults to 200ms.

Release time is the time it takes before the limiter releases (OMG REALLY?!). In other words, the less release time, the punchier it will sound, the more, the smoother it will sound. Just mess around with it until you hear you've got it right. Each track requires different settings.

I assume that the "ceiling" is the same as "margin" or "peak"

Yup.

Also, if I hear a little distortion here and there, should I raise the threshold to remove it?

If you are absolutely sure there's nothing wrong with the mix, then yes, raise the threshold. Otherwise, fix the issue in the mix.

[Birdinator99]

Ok, last question, I swear ;)

I played around with and compared the two, messing with the settings and whatnot, and I actually prefer the sound of the first one (set with a threshold of -4.2 dB). It got louder, but I wanted even louder still, so I turned up my master fader, which had been set to provide about 3-6 dBs of headroom as per your suggestion, about 4 dBs (after applying the master limiter with the setting mentioned, of course), and noticed that it got even louder AGAIN, but there was no clipping (peaking at around -1 dB).

Is that what people usually do? Give headroom, then limit (and use other mastering processes), then raise the master fader back up for extra volume (provided it does not clip)? I'm doing all of this "mastering" on the master bus by the way, which I know is not ideal.

[The-iMortal]

At 8/6/12 03:40 AM, Birdinator99 wrote: Is that what people usually do? Give headroom, then limit (and use other mastering processes), then raise the master fader back up for extra volume (provided it does not clip)? I'm doing all of this "mastering" on the master bus by the way, which I know is not ideal.

No, that's not what people usually do. Like I stated in an earlier post, protocol is exporting a .wav of your mix, with the peak in between -6dB to -3dB. The volume is then determined by factors such as your limiter, harmonic exciter etc.

I have noticed something... if my track after my mastering is way louder than any other professional song in my iTunes library... something is seriously wrong. If this is the case, compare your track to commercial releases to hear the difference. Usually it's that I've limited it too much that there's no real punch or bass.

[Birdinator99]

At 8/6/12 03:50 AM, The-iMortal wrote: No, that's not what people usually do. Like I stated in an earlier post, protocol is exporting a .wav of your mix, with the peak in between -6dB to -3dB. The volume is then determined by factors such as your limiter, harmonic exciter etc.

Well, you see, my DAW renders mp3s really poorly sometimes, so what I could do is render an unmastered WAV (with the headroom), import it back into the DAW, do the mastering (including limiting) WITHOUT touching the master fader, then export to WAV AGAIN, and then convert that WAV into mp3 using an external convertor program.

That way, any additional volume that was added in the mastering process would be because of the mastering effects and not the master fader, as you have told me, AND my file would still be a relatively high quality.

[The-iMortal]

At 8/6/12 04:04 AM, Birdinator99 wrote: That way, any additional volume that was added in the mastering process would be because of the mastering effects and not the master fader, as you have told me, AND my file would still be a relatively high quality.

Correct. As long as you apply everything properly, to a proper mix. :)

[Birdinator99]

Hey man, I just want to say thanks for helping me wrap my head around this thing. You didn't have to help, but you did, and I really appreciate it.

[The-iMortal]

At 8/6/12 04:17 AM, Birdinator99 wrote: Hey man, I just want to say thanks for helping me wrap my head around this thing. You didn't have to help, but you did, and I really appreciate it.

No worries.