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Final render has really low volume

1,585 Views | 14 Replies
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Alright, this is starting to frustrate me.

I'm working in FL Studio, and no matter what I try, whenever I try to export a song, the volume is incredibly low - much lower than it should be, especially when compared to iTunes or even the audio portal here on the site. I've tried putting limiters on pretty much everything, especially things that were causing the dB to peak above 0, and I reached a max peak of about -2 dB within the song, but for some reason, rendering and normalizing the song (I use Audacity to normalize afterwards) still produces a pretty quiet song. Is there anyone who's experienced this problem that can offer their advice?

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-18 21:50:52


Not enough soundgoodizers probably :P

But in all honesty maybe you need to mix the tracks a bit different cause something is forcing them to be quieter. Post a screenshot of your fl and maybe we can start form there

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-18 21:51:33


At 8/18/12 09:50 PM, Kirbyfemur wrote: Not enough soundgoodizers probably :P

But in all honesty maybe you need to mix the tracks a bit different cause something is forcing them to be quieter. Post a screenshot of your fl and maybe we can start form there

I tried using a soundgoodizer, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. What exactly do you need a screenshot of?

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-18 21:56:14


At 8/18/12 09:51 PM, MaskedGuardian wrote: I tried using a soundgoodizer, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. What exactly do you need a screenshot of?

Better still, upload your audio file (or a short sample of) to a file hosting site, and post the link here.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-18 22:12:46


At 8/18/12 09:56 PM, The-iMortal wrote:
At 8/18/12 09:51 PM, MaskedGuardian wrote: I tried using a soundgoodizer, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. What exactly do you need a screenshot of?
Better still, upload your audio file (or a short sample of) to a file hosting site, and post the link here.

Alright, I posted it onto Sound Cloud. Like I said, it has limiters on.. pretty much everything, but that's not what's contributing to the low volume - in fact it helped, though ever so slightly.

http://soundcloud.com/maskedguardian/song-275#

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-18 22:59:49


Update: Okay, so I just did a little experiment where I got rid of all the limiters and put a soundgoodizer on the master track, and that seemed to help. But.. are soundgoodizers recommended?

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 00:41:37


At 8/18/12 10:59 PM, MaskedGuardian wrote: Update: Okay, so I just did a little experiment where I got rid of all the limiters and put a soundgoodizer on the master track, and that seemed to help. But.. are soundgoodizers recommended?

Honestly no not really, my comment on them was mostly a joke. However it sounds like you might have maybe had something get messed up with however many limiters you had on it. Maybe try some light compression on the individual instruments.. Be careful with soundgoodizer, it can either help you, or destroy you in a fiery ball of passion

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 00:53:04


At 8/18/12 10:59 PM, MaskedGuardian wrote: Update: Okay, so I just did a little experiment where I got rid of all the limiters and put a soundgoodizer on the master track, and that seemed to help. But.. are soundgoodizers recommended?

What you have to keep in mind is that limiters are named appropriately. They limit the peaks. As much as they make it louder, the more limiters you have, the more squashed your track becomes.

And soundgoodizer... steer clear of it.

One of the best limiters for mastering I have tried is FabFilter Pro-L. You should try out the 30-day trial.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 01:17:07


At 8/19/12 12:53 AM, The-iMortal wrote:
At 8/18/12 10:59 PM, MaskedGuardian wrote:



And soundgoodizer... steer clear of it.

Be careful with soundgoodizer, it can either help you, or destroy you in a fiery ball of passion

... Can I ask why it's bad? It seemed to help quite a bit.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 01:27:29


At 8/19/12 01:17 AM, MaskedGuardian wrote: ... Can I ask why it's bad? It seemed to help quite a bit.

Look, if it made your song sound better, then sure. But my experience with it was making some aspects of a track sound better, but also making some aspects sound worse.

But hey, whatever makes you smile at the end of the day.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 01:59:15


Putting a soundgoodizer on the master bus is like trying to force everyone to play soccer no matter how much they suck at it.

Basically, all your instruments have their own personality, and by doing almost anything significant across the entire track (like soundgoodizer, which is basically 4 Maximus presets), you will favor certain instruments and destroy the others. All instruments require their own EQ, delay, compression, sometimes even reverb (reverb, however, often works better if you can consolidate it to groups, since that's more realistic). Each one has to be treated carefully so that it's presence and feeling can be fully expressed in the mix. Everything done on the master bus should be done extremely carefully, and in general should be really subtle.

Using Soundgoodizer at all usually isn't recommended in a final mix. It's really handy for drop in fixes when you want to focus on fleshing out an idea instead of poking at an equalizer for 15 minutes, but it should almost always be replaced by something else because, again, its basically 4 maximus presets except you can't change any of the values. It strips away your ability to tweak things. If you don't know *how* to do those things, then its use is more acceptable, but you should try to learn how. If you go into Maximus and look for the "Soundgoodizer" presets, you can actually look at exactly what it's doing, which is a good start.

As for your song, I'd love to listen to it to tell you what's going on, but according to soundcloud, you have no publically available tracks, so i'm guessing you made it private, and thus no one can listen to it. I'm going to go ahead and guess that either you put too much bass in the track and it ate up all your headroom, or your instrument choices have conflicting frequencies and there's two or three choke points that are crushing everything else by improperly triggering the compressors.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 02:31:17


At 8/19/12 01:59 AM, Blackhole12 wrote: Basically, all your instruments have their own personality, and by doing almost anything significant across the entire track (like soundgoodizer, which is basically 4 Maximus presets), you will favor certain instruments and destroy the others. All instruments require their own EQ, delay, compression, sometimes even reverb (reverb, however, often works better if you can consolidate it to groups, since that's more realistic). Each one has to be treated carefully so that it's presence and feeling can be fully expressed in the mix. Everything done on the master bus should be done extremely carefully, and in general should be really subtle.

I see, so basically you have no control, and it can easily screw things up. I guess my next goal will be to learn more about compression and EQ.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 02:44:58


At 8/19/12 02:31 AM, MaskedGuardian wrote: I see, so basically you have no control, and it can easily screw things up. I guess my next goal will be to learn more about compression and EQ.

Definitely do this. I also recommend reading some extensive instructions on how EQ and compression work, and how they are designed to be used, before expirementing with these tools.

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 02:50:15


At 8/19/12 02:44 AM, The-iMortal wrote:
At 8/19/12 02:31 AM, MaskedGuardian wrote: I see, so basically you have no control, and it can easily screw things up. I guess my next goal will be to learn more about compression and EQ.
Definitely do this. I also recommend reading some extensive instructions on how EQ and compression work, and how they are designed to be used, before expirementing with these tools.

Will do. A lot of the things in FL are still very foreign to me, so I have to learn what everything does. Hopefully next project I'll have a bit more control. As for this particular song, I've gone ahead and put it up because I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Thanks for your help, guys!

Response to Final render has really low volume 2012-08-19 06:46:55


Even though it seems like u've exhausted this topic, I didn't see anyone say that compressors on individual tracks are what helps, cuz they do.

U can't just throw a limiter on the master and hope for loudness. Each individual track must be considered. Some can be grouped, but overall, individuality is the key to loudness.

At 8/19/12 02:50 AM, MaskedGuardian wrote:
At 8/19/12 02:44 AM, The-iMortal wrote:
At 8/19/12 02:31 AM, MaskedGuardian wrote: I see, so basically you have no control, and it can easily screw things up. I guess my next goal will be to learn more about compression and EQ.
Definitely do this. I also recommend reading some extensive instructions on how EQ and compression work, and how they are designed to be used, before expirementing with these tools.
Will do. A lot of the things in FL are still very foreign to me, so I have to learn what everything does. Hopefully next project I'll have a bit more control. As for this particular song, I've gone ahead and put it up because I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Thanks for your help, guys!

no, really...DON'T CLICK THE PIC

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