How to bounce with full volume as heard while playing back?

[trenten7]

Whenever I bounce, the exported file's volume becomes very low than what is heard in the actual Logic recording mix. I understand that the 'Normalize' feature in bouncing adjusts and equalizes the audio to not go over the meter. However, all I want is to bounce at full volume regardless if there are any cracks and pops or over-registered audio in the mix.

 

Turning off 'Normalize' results in the bounced audio file to sound too distorted and cracks/pops at certain times, which you wouldn't hear before bouncing (in the Logic mix while playing everything back, the audio doesn't crack/pop and sound distorted).

 

I also understand that you can set limiters on channels to refrain from audio levels to surpass the meter, however it seems like the more channels you have playing back audio at the same time, the higher the overall audio meter registers even if each individual channel has recordings at very low volumes.

 

I just want to bounce at the volume and sound I hear while playing back in the Logic mix without having the volume extremely lowered or horrible pops/cracks and distortion when turning off 'normalize'.

[triplets]

You're clipping the Stereo Out. That's not good. It means all the individual channels are sending too much signal.

 

Put an Adaptive Limiter on the Stereo Out as a quick remedy for now.

The real fix is to make sure the Stereo Out doesn't clip by bringing everything else down.

[trenten7]

I put limiters but still at points when the audio doesn't even sound loud enough to clip, it does and the meter goes to around 4.5 in the red.

 

Now, when you say to bring down everything else, that does fix the clipping but then the audio is to low.

[David Nahmani]

You can't mix with your stereo output liberally in the red and expect predictable results. Any mix that is clipped that much will be at the mercy of the D/A converters used by the person listening to it, and you don't have any control over that.

 

when you say to bring down everything else, that does fix the clipping but then the audio is to low.

 

Too low... compared to what? A commercial released, professionally mastered? Because that would be an unfair comparison!

 

What you need to change is not the level of your mix, it's your expectations of how loud your mix should sound. First of all, during the mixing stage, you're not shooting for level, you're shooting for sound quality. Then comes the mastering stage, when you're going to try and optimize the perceived level of your mix while still avoiding completely clipping the master.

 

You could read up on mastering, or hire a professional mastering engineer to do the job for you (that's usually what I do).

 

As far as reading, I would recommend you start there:

 

Guide to Levels in Digital Audio

 

Oh and.... by the way: what kind of audio interface are you using when working in Logic? How are you listening to your mix after bouncing it? What software, and what hardware (does it go through the same interface)?

[trenten7]

Thanks for the clear info David. Clearly, I'm no pro.. far from it actually! I have to read up and do more research on mastering cause I thought that the mastering WAS done during the mixing (when everything has been recorded and not even bounced yet).

 

What I have done so far was adjust the master volume lower, bounced that and am currently mastering that bounced track. I can 'normalize' it to reach it's fullest volume levels and work on the file from there.

 

Who would have thought there is so much work behind mastering!

 

Also, out of curiosity, how much would a professional cost to master for you (1 song)?

 

Thanks again everyone, www.logicprohelp.com is a fantastic forums site.

[David Nahmani]

out of curiosity, how much would a professional cost to master for you (1 song)?.

 

Average prices start around $100 to $150 per song, of course you can always spend more, especially if you want a big name engineer.

[ski]

I put limiters but still at points when the audio doesn't even sound loud enough to clip, it does and the meter goes to around 4.5 in the red.

 

Putting limiters on things is the wrong approach for taming volume. That's because the limiters are going to change the sound of every track that you bounce with a limiter on it. Unless you want your tracks (or your mix) to sound limited, don't use limiters. Lower the levels of your tracks instead.