Volume Question - Fader?

[-Loco-]

When i bounce a mastered version of my song and then play it back online through dropbox, i've noticed that with good quality mastered songs that a tiny adjustment of the volume fader in dropbox has a dramatic effect on the rate of change of the volume but with mine i have to slide the fader all the way up on dropbox to reveal the same 'depth' and volume i was getting while mixing in cubase...why is this? it feels like the volume fader is just like an on/off switch there's no sort of 'logarithmic' increase in the volume. I've got a clip if people want, to see what i mean?


this isn't a stupid CANIHAZMAXIMUMZLOUDNESS thread, it's been bugging me for a while, cheers.

 

[Sora01]

Things always sound better louder, with more bass, get it sounding good while it's quite quiet and it will sound feckin awesome louder.

Or at least that's what I think

 

[-Loco-]

Thank you darren, but that's not what i meant......I don't know if its to do with my volume in windows volume control...

 

[John_C]

I'm really not getting it......

 

[B36arin]

Things always sound better louder, with more bass, get it sounding good while it's quite quiet and it will sound feckin awesome louder.

Or at least that's what I think

I don't agree at all. If you mix at a quite level your mix usually becomes bassy and boomy when your turn it up because our ears don't respond as well to bass at 70-75dB as they do at 80-85dB. I've got a few friends that also think that everything sounds better with more bass. I strongly disagree, things sound better with a working low-end. And for me it usually works much, much better if I mix at a good level. But this is a totally different discussion.

To the thread starter, lots of volume control algorithms are shit, basically. Some are logarithmic so half the volume actually sounds like half the volume to our ears, some aren't. So you answered your own question, if I understood the question correctly.

 

[John_C]

Try to make your mix sound powerful at lower volumes without making it sound overpowering at high volumes. It's all a compromise. Mixing everything at one volume is a bit like not referencing on other systems.

 

[B36arin]

True, good point. I misunderstood your post, I thought that you suggested to do mixing at a lower level.

 

[-Loco-]

for clipping should i be looking at the peak value and the rms value or just the peak value?

 

[John_C]

for clipping should i be looking at the peak value and the rms value or just the peak value?

peak. Only look at the master bus though, nothing before there is likely to clip.

 

[-Loco-]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/970663/GUITARS.wav

basically adjust the volume of this from bottom to top and see how small the volume change is with the fader, that's what i mean except on a whole song scale.

and then comp'd http://dl.dropbox.com/u/970663/GUITARScomp.wav

 

[B36arin]

I am very tired, but apart from one of the clips being a lot louder I didn't really notice any difference in the volume change.