Subject:Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Posted by: Durga

Date:8/26/2002 8:47:55 PM

Hi. Hoping someone can help me. I have Acid Pro 3.0. Okay, I play with loops endlessly, adjust and mix the levels, then plug in my instruments and add my own tracks, adjust and mix levels, then adjust master volume so it's just under clipping, then render my song to a mp3. So far so good. Then I'm on to my next songs, repeating the same process, then adjusting the master volume so that all the songs are close to the same volume. Then I burn a CD of all my mp3 songs and it plays beautifully on my stereo system....but here's my problem....The volume of my CD is only half the volume of a normal store-bought CD. I really have to crank up the volume knob on my stereo. I'm not very smart when it comes to computers and computer programs (how I even got this far is beyond me). Is there anyone out there who can tell what I'm doing wrong and explain to me (in simple terms) how to bring up the overall volume on my CD? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Reply by: KSchember

Date:8/26/2002 10:06:13 PM

First off, a replicated CD (store bought) goes through a different process to be made and is overall a better quality and achieves a higher volume -

However, you can come close to that with burned cds from your computer by doing a little mastering of your final track before you burn it.

If you have Sound Forge or Wavelab, or some other wave editor -
You can ad EQ - Compression, and other FX that will help you

There is one plug in called "Loudness Maximizer" that does a great job of this-

Also you can try simply using the usually built in "Normalize" feature that will push the limits of the audio as close to 0db as possible, but some people don't like the sound that this creates - although that method works great for me sometimes -

I hope that helps!

kyle

www.rockstar.cd

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Reply by: Jessariah

Date:8/26/2002 10:16:50 PM

The Sound Forge "loudness maximizer" is WaveHammer -- basically a mastering compressor. In almost any "natural" .wav file, there will be be "spikes" in the wave that will keep the general body of the work down (quieter). What you want to do is get rid of those spikes -- which is where compression comes in. You can also throw a limiter on the file and get similar results. What you want (IMHO) as an end result is a signal that is "bouncing" above the grass (above -6 dB).

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:8/27/2002 10:19:11 AM

As Jessariah was getting at, your RMS level may be low, even though you are peaking rather loud. But here's my first tip to you: don't render to mp3! How can you be serious about your music if you ae going to use a lossy compression scheme as your output file and then convert that back for CD use?

After you render your tracks as 44.1kHz 24 bit (or 16 bit if you need the space) wave files, bring one into Sound Forge and do a Tools|Statistics. This will show you the peak and RMS levels of your track (although I really think there's a bug in the peak level reader - you can do a Process|Normalize|Scan to get a different peak level, just click Cancel instead of OK).

Normalize allows you to adjust your RMS level, but it applies compression if necessary that you cannot control. You can use Effects|Dynamics|Graphic with some of the presets to try to get an idea of what compression does to your music (do NOT confuse this with what mp3 or ZIP compression does to a file). You can try searching various audio websites for info on compression. A brief explanation can take pages. I think there is a moderate description in a previous thread on this web site.

TeeCee

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Reply by: aarrington

Date:8/27/2002 8:07:51 PM

So TeeCee,

Are you saying that a combination of both the Normalizer AND the Wavehammer (i.e. compressor and volume maximizer)?

By the way, I don't know much about the mastering process, so would you or Jessariah mind telling me what you might consider optimal levels in each field? That might be a very vague question, sorry! But if it would help, I usually produce hip hop music, which is often a bass heavy genre.

Thanks,
The New Guy!

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD..wassup Kyle

Reply by: midihead

Date:8/27/2002 11:27:04 PM

Kyle baby,

Wassssup man. I too use Waves Mastering plugins with Sound Forge 6 to master all my stuff. I use the Waves LinMB Mastering EQ to make some frequencies stand out more and then finalize it with the L2. With just the right amount, you'll be sounding like the pro's...with a lot of practice and patience I might add. I'm still not quite there yet. For a listen to my latest tracks that I made exclusively with Acid, recording my synths live, and then mastering with these plugins, check out: www.midihead.com/artists/monolithic/promo

Cheerz,

Midihead

Subject:RE: Problem with overall volume on finished CD

Reply by: TeeCee

Date:8/29/2002 12:45:42 PM

aarrington:
I normalize whether I compress or not. Especially when working with a 24 bit file. If you transfer a 24 bit file to CD, you truncate the lowest 8 bits. If you can normalize to bring more of that data into the upper 16 bits, you will retain more data (i.e. your song) when you burn a CD. Compression is used for many things, one of which is to bring up the relative loudness of a song. If after normalizing your track, the CD stills sounds low, you can try compression. You may eventually find that the mix just isn't good and no amount of bedroom "mastering" is going to fix it.

Mastering is something some people get paid very well to do which afterwards you can expect your music to work (sound) better on more sound systems and when broadcasted. What those guys do is what they have to do and their bag of tricks will vary. I believe Chaircrusher (in this forum) does some mastering work.

TeeCee