Issue with Master track compression

[-Loco-]

When i apply a lot of compression to the master track to the lift the volume of the whole song - it's near peaking but when I listen to it through cubase it sounds fine just very loud/mushed (no crackle).

However, when I bounce the whole track (to mp3) (not changing anything from when I listened to it in cubase)

and play it through itunes/wmp etc it sounds quiet? or quieter...
I can adjust the master bus but it's like it'll only reach a certain point and then stop getting louder after that.

It's kinda like there's an on switch on my mix too where it only sounds punchy if its loud and if its quiet its shit and flat (i've changed my habits since then and tried not to add much gain to the compressors)

But just out of curiosity...Why is this? there's nothing in the loudness wars tutorials etc about this.

 

[ahjteam]

are you sure you have the volume at max in the settings? And in the windows settings too?


edit: ah, you converted it into mp3

 

[-Loco-]

Yeah, i bounce all my songs down to mp3 when they are finished obviously.

Yeah man but i've changed things recently so that i ensure NONE of my tracks are clipping before i apply anything to the master bus....

hasn't really made much difference though.

Things always just seem to be louder in cubase than in any of the media players with them all on max volume.

 

[Dexter_prog]

Happens to me also. Doesn't windows use a different volume than the one DAWs use? I mean. DAWs using the volume set to the max and Windows' system volume set to, for example 50%.

 

[storming heaven]

In addition you can always import a song by some other band into your daw to compare the loudness.

 

[professorlamp]

I noticed this problem once (about itunes being quieter than cubase) and to fix it what i did was goto the Equalizer (IN ITUNES!) turn the preamp on and put it to +12 Db. All of the commercial songs are obviously gonna be louder but cubase and Itunes should now be at the same volume, well that's what fixed mine anyways.

 

[gabriel g.]

I think you "normalize" your tracks when bouncing.

Just dont do it and your song will be as loud as in cubase

 

[-Loco-]

what gabriel said sounds like something somebody told me a while ago. How do i turn off the normalizing man? And what is normalizing?


Also as far as i can tell there is no volume control in cubase other than the master fader!

professorlamp: i see what you're saying but it's a case of actually wanting to get the MIX loud not the volume from my speakers loud

 

[Dexter_prog]

I'm pretty sure it's the difference in volume between Windows and the DAW, as ahjteam said. Windows' volume can be controled through Control Panel. It should be maxed out to equal the DAWs volume, which, in my opinion is kind of pointless as you don't want. Just add a another song, as storming heaven said, and check if the volumes are close.

 

[-Loco-]

Thanks, this has helped a bit

I think my mixes just lack punch

Although i'd like to know a bit more about normalizing

 

[arv_foh]

Thanks, this has helped a bit

I think my mixes just lack punch

Although i'd like to know a bit more about normalizing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_normalization

If your audio is compressed normalization would not make it quiet. Basically it's for when you have a quiet source, when you normalize, it analyzes the audio and finds the peak of the song, and brings that peak up to a certain point (usually -0.3dB) and then applies the same amount of gain to the rest of the audio.

 

[-Loco-]

yeah but in my cubase manual there is a tab/selector for sidechain but it doesn't tell you where to find it...it's like a menu...i can't find it, anybody else know where it is?

 

[mrinshredible]

your using itunes right??

itunes has a "make all tracks same volume" option. meaning it will turn down the loudest songs to a max volume and if a songs quiet it will be unaffected. so turn that stupid feature off.

secondly, with my daw, the master volume is nothing to do with windows. so go to control panel, sounds and devices, under playback tab or something there is a advanced button that has 3 faders on it, MASTER, synth and cd player.

if the music is quieter on your pc than your daw, turn up the master fader on this option.

problems solved.

 

[ahjteam]

problems solved.

old thread is old.