Mastering, or...?? What am I doing wrong?

[BrandonS]

Hey. So my band's finally finished recording a debut full-length, actually it's more like a promo as the band isn't signed or anything. I was pretty satisfied with the mix and master, but then when I played another song and it was a lot louder and packed a ton more punch, I was like "Wtf?"

Why are my songs so quiet? I try to crank them up to near distorting level in the speakers. I've tried using a limiter before as compression on the song, but that kinda made it sound really weird and hollow or something? I don't know what I am doing wrong as far as that goes. When I do the mix, I get everything sounding right within itself, not too loud, then at the mastering stage I usually apply a graphic equalizer and raise the volume....

I know this is probably the wrong way to do it, so can anyone help me out with what I actually need to do to get a louder mix? That would be awesome! And please comment on the mix as well, you can find 4 full songs here that were recently released on the net. Now you know pretty much exactly how the mix sounds, as you've got the samples (duhhh) so please help me out! And please don't use highly technical producer lingo, I'm just a little guy, hehe! Not Sneap level in skill, not even close, and I don't use protools (Audition to be honest)

 

[TheStoryteller]

Use this:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1727.html

Put it as the last thing in your mastering chain. Raise gain. Voila.

 

[AStacy2]

Try mixing with a limiter on the master bus, especially if you're mastering things yourself. If you know your songs are too quiet then maybe even throw limiters on your drums/guitars/vox bus too just to pick up the level a little bit and even things out. Make sure you don't have a snare or kick that's poking through too far in the mix too.


As far as mastering goes, I think you're on the right track. I usually use some EQ to fix any problems and throw on some multiband compression (not a lot though, really shouldn't need it to be ultra compressed) and then a final limiter. I think EQ is the biggest thing though, sometimes I find if you get the track EQ'd perfectly you might not even need to use any multiband comp. I think the best way to master something that you're mixing is just to make the mix as good as possible and exactly how you want it that way you can just tweak a few things in the mastering process.

 

[smy1]

Use this:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1727.html

Put it as the last thing in your mastering chain. Raise gain. Voila.

Oh, cool! There's been an update. I've been using the earlier version constantly. This free little thing is much better than any of the commercial ones I have, so it always ends up on the final slot in the master bus.

 

[John Haddad (Shiva Industries)]

Everybodies chain will differ I know this but I use....... Multipressor - Linear Phase EQ - Adaptive limiter than a frequecy analizer. Seems to get any job done just right. But its all in the frequency analizer, if you know how to read em you'll be golden.

 

[sorceron]

i used to use the same chain myself

 

[Kenneth R.]

mine's pretty similar as well. also note Oinkness, that if you are sacrificing the sound to get it 'loud' it's better to have it a little quieter and the listener turn it up than to have it loud and sound crap...

 

[BrandonS]

mine's pretty similar as well. also note Oinkness, that if you are sacrificing the sound to get it 'loud' it's better to have it a little quieter and the listener turn it up than to have it loud and sound crap...

That has always been on my mind, I would rather not have it sound like crap and be loud.... I've avoided using that limiter before when it made the song sound hollow... I'm gonna check out this KVR Limiter thing and see what it does if I can get it, but I have always tried to stay away from making it sound like crap through loudness. (But normal loudness is perfectly acceptable!)

I was surprised to see such a low size in KBs of these things, but they will still take a couple minutes to download *gasp!* What is the average volume that a song should be? I think mine are always mastered under the 0db mark, sometimes popping up that high at certain parts of the song...

Edit2: Wow, this pocket limiter thing is very strong! I imported the internet-version MP3 into the recording program, applied this VST, made some little changes to the settings and I had it two times as loud and without distortion, or at least none I could hear. I think I've got to choose a safe level though, as it seems to muffle the muted low powerchords a bit... This could definitely help out a lot though.

 

[Kenneth R.]

playing with these things is really a good way to learn through experience...

as for "normal" volume on a song, there really is no rule, but you can A/B your song with a standard pro produced one to compare if you like.