Studio Help!!

[Enigma™]

Okay, so our band is in a home-made studio and I'm responsible for mixing and mastering...

I have a few questions for people that have more experience in this area than I do:

Let me fill you in as to what we're using:
We have various instruments that don't matter at the moment, as we've got the tracks and stuff laid already. We've got a decent mixing console going into an Maudio 24/96 with an athlon 64bit/2.4 ghz.
We're using Sonar 4 pro, coupled with Cool Edit 2.0 or 2.1... I forget.

Anyway, the issue is not the mixing, we've got on a decent hold of that. The issue is this: The overall volume is way less than other songs on the same CD that aren't ours... Like it seems our master output is way less than other produced albums/songs.

Now, I'm WELL aware that we have to normalize all the tracks, etc... Not a problem. We've got that part fine, and got some basic EQ's on things like Piano/synth, Acoustic guitars, appropriate gates where needed, etc.. That's even fine.

HOWEVER - When we export those tracks into a single file, we've got a mixed track. Then I open that track with CoolEditPro, put some mastering EQ's for the final track and save it.

Then we take that updated track and bring it back into Sonar and apply some multiband compression.

We've got a decent sounding thing goin' on now... but it's STILL way too quiet compared to the other tracks from other bands.

We can't turn the tracks up any more without them clipping... The drums are basically maxed out as loud as they'll go, but we need them to be more prominent...

But overall what could I be doing to get that "studio sound?"

If I needed to use different software that would definitely work like Pro-Tools, we'll pay to get that software but I need to know what would work... It's just frustrating because no matter what we do it's not competing with the output levels of other songs and that's not good...

HELP!!!! :-)

[aquatarkus]

Have you tried the Waves plug-in sonic maximizer ?
It can bring up the overall volume, but acts as a limiter as well so it doesn´t clip.

[Stimpus]

What did you ddo to the drums in the process? anything special? maybe you need to filter some of the frequencies, i know the same thing happened to me when i was using pro-tools, and i found that by changing the levels of some frequencies, it didn't "clip" the same and you can turn it up abit. Then again that was just me. How about cutting down the drums, making them quieter? or will this ruin your sound? if its perfect how it is then maybe thats a bad idea.....
I can't think of much else other than a limiter which aquatarkus suggested...

[Isaari]

Could it be that you have something noiselike created in the mix
that would eat up dynamics. Check up with spectral analyser.
Then overall mix would sound weak.

Anyway try with fresh ears
another day track by track and you´ll find it

[Bert]

Without knowing the settings you used on your compressor/limiter, allow me to offer some advice. If this is what you've already done, well, we'll all have to think a little more!

When you run your final mix through the compressor, try setting the attack as fast as possible, the ratio as extreme as possible, and the threshold somewhere down at -6 to -7 dB. This will probably work best if you've already normalized your mix once.

The reasoning behind this is quite simple, really. When you normalize a track, all the processor does is search the track for the single sample that represents the highest amplitude, and then scales it to 100%, scaling all the rest of the samples at the same ratio. So, if there are ANY spikes anywhere in your mix, the normalizer will simply max out the top of the spike, and leave the rest of the audio far beneath it.

Setting the attack as fast as possible ensures that less rapid transient amplitudes slip through the effect before the compression clamps down on it. Imagine for a moment that there's a drum hit, a bass snap, or even a tiny audio glitch that's maybe 5 or 6 dB above the rest of the track -- even if it's for only 2 or 3 samples. This will mess up the normalizing process as explained before, and even if you put it through a compressor, if the attack is not immediate, those 3 samples will pass by before the attenuation takes effect.

Setting the ratio as extremely as possible simply ensures that an extreme transient like that actually gets crunched down into the rest of the mix as fast as possible.

Setting the threshold down at -6 or -7 dB ensures that when you normalize again after this process, you'll gain roughly that much volume in the overall mix.

Also, you should set the release time of the compressor to be as fast as possible. If there *is* a funny spike somewhere, and the compressor cuts it down but the release is long, you'll hear the effect "breathe" really severely, and that just sounds horrible.

You'll obviously need to do some listening and find out which settings do exactly what you want... without being there and listening myself, I can only suggest settings. Don't take this as gospel!!!

Another thought, if this whole thing doesn't work: If you have access to an analog tape deck (preferably high quality, even reel-to-reel if you can find one), you can run your mix over to it and really jam the input recording volume all the way up. By saturating the tape, not only will you get some of that nice analog-style warmth, the tape will also naturally smooth out some of the spikes and transients. Then, re-record into your DAW, and normalize from there.

Let me know if this helps!! I'm curious to see if you have some success.

-- Bertman the audio man

[metropolis2k]

+1 for Bert's post.

He's got it right there and explains normalisation well. I'm 2/3rds through a music technology degree so I've come across things like that and I just find I have a good enough signal in everything when I come to mix it that the multiband compression gets it to the perfect level in mastering.

I'm taking a module in mastering next term so when I learn more I'll pass it on - it's certainly something I've not really learnt before!