I am sure this has been posted on here before but....how do I get my final mix volume to be comparable to commercial CD volumes? It seems to me that when I burn CDs of my mixes, they are not as loud as CDs I have purchased. I am burning my CDs with ITunes if that helps/makes a difference.
Thanks
Shawn
Final mix volume
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Forum rules
This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
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Rythym4God
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:01 pm
- Primary DAW OS: Unspecified
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Rainman
- Posts: 225
- Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:01 pm
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: "high in the Custerdome"
The final process in standard CD prep is mastering. It's the last chance to do a bit of overall EQing, limiting, compressing etc. before the final burn. The reason for this is to attempt to have consistancy in bottom and top end as well as loudness occur on all the tracks going to CD. Some people like to do a considerable amount of squeezing during the mis process while others prefer to do it after the mix as this gives them more options.
I use Peak to master, typically I'll have about 6db of headroom, sometimes more depending on the sytle of music. I'll use an EQ(one capable of about 10 bands although that might be overkill), a multiband compressor and a limiter in that order. The limiter is usually what allows for the final loudness to be applied and is what causes alot of contoversy in forums these days as there is a tendancy to kill any dynamics that were present in the track.
The mastering process used to be done exclusively by person who did nothing but and had developed both an expertise and an ear for it. Lot's of people will do their own mastering these days with varying mileage. If I'm working on a project with a good budget and the intention is to try and crack into the charts somewhere, I'll have the mixes mastered by a mastering house, they have the fresh ears and no bias towards the music(ie, they haven't heard it hundreds and hundres of times).
Regards
Rainman
I use Peak to master, typically I'll have about 6db of headroom, sometimes more depending on the sytle of music. I'll use an EQ(one capable of about 10 bands although that might be overkill), a multiband compressor and a limiter in that order. The limiter is usually what allows for the final loudness to be applied and is what causes alot of contoversy in forums these days as there is a tendancy to kill any dynamics that were present in the track.
The mastering process used to be done exclusively by person who did nothing but and had developed both an expertise and an ear for it. Lot's of people will do their own mastering these days with varying mileage. If I'm working on a project with a good budget and the intention is to try and crack into the charts somewhere, I'll have the mixes mastered by a mastering house, they have the fresh ears and no bias towards the music(ie, they haven't heard it hundreds and hundres of times).
Regards
Rainman