Mastering Loudness

Hey guys,

 

I have multipressed my track by 4db, EQ'd it a bit & limited it by 1db but it is still significantly quieter and less present than a commercial track.

 

Is there anything I can do to get it louder without distorting?

 

many thanks,

j

Dont know if im doing something wrong.. Just imported my mastered track from Logic into Cubase to double check the wave and it is well below 0db, even though i am going into the red slightly in Logic Out1&2!

Are your Output and Master faders at unity (0.0dB)?

Don't Normalize when you bounce.

Are your Output and Master faders at unity (0.0dB)?

 

My Track fader is at -1.4 & my master Out 1-2 is at +0.5. The Out 1-2 was clipping slightly which why I cant understand why the transients weren't hitting the top of the waveform when I viewed it in cubase..

 

ps, no didnt normalize when i exported

What limiter did you use?

 

PS. always best to keep the Master fader at 0.0 unless working with surround.

+1 on keeping the master fader at 0dB

What limiter did you use?

 

PS. always best to keep the Master fader at 0.0 unless working with surround.

 

 

 

Yeah, was just compensating for the lower track volume. I used the standard Limiter not the adaptive one..

Use the Adaptive Limiter, keep the master at 0dB, and you can get a loud bounce.

Another thing you might consider is some broadband parallel compression. Probably after the EQ and maybe even after the Multiband comp. Logic's standard compressor can do parallel compression right in the plug's GUI (click the disclosure triangle at the bottom of the comp). So you will be mixing a bit of compressed signal in with the uncompressed signal. This should fatten things up a bit.

 

And forum member Lagerfeldt has a few resources you might want to check out....

 

His SSL Bus compressor.

 

More on compression here....

 

And his parallel multiband compressor setting can fatten up tracks quite nicely, although you'll need extra bussing for this.

good info in here, thanks for this thread!

Loudness mostly comes from other aspects of the song than mastering itself, try reading this thread:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/468170-loudness-when-producing-mixing-tips.html

 

Good mastering will capitalize on that potential, but mastering itself does not substantially create loudness potential if there was none to begin with. This does not mean the song has to be mixed loud, but it has to have the potential to be loud.

 

Maybe your song does have the potential to be loud and it simply needs to be mastered professionally, but often you need to go back to the production and mix (or even arrangement) to optimize things first.