cd volume

[thepinkrobot25]

i have a problem getting the volume of burnt cd's to match pro cd volume. when i master my stuff, its always hits close to zero but doesnt hit the red. and then i burn it and its only half way audible when the cd player volume is all the way up....any suggestions...thanx


russ

[cmchamp]

When I master, I try to do a few things.
1: EQ, after the mix is tight, EQ to smooth out the edges, warm things up, crispen vocals or to add "air"
2: Multi-band compress so you're killing the vocals when the bottom lets loose or killing the bass guitar when a sibilance gets out of hand.
3: Limit bringing the average RMS up as much as possible, between -15 and -10, but don't go for any more than a total of -4 gain reduction. makes things sound bland. You want to limit to just take the top off the mix but not so the whole mix is flat.

If you have software that allows you to view wave forms, rip a few of your favorite CD's to WAV or AIFF depending on your platform and view the wave form as the music plays. You'll get a feel for where the average is and how much of the top is chopped off.

I started setting my limiter to -.25db and have snuck it up to -.15db. You don't want to reach "0" because that is digital saturation. That means there are no more bits of information left and any more is just noise. Analog saturation is a good thing (sometimes), but digital saturation is not a good thing and isn't really pleasing to listen to.

Hope that helps.

[David Klausner]

A good "loudness maximizer" type of limiter (like the Waves L2) can work wonders. If overall volume is still an issue, you may have to look at reducing the dynamic range of individual tracks as well. If you've got a snare, for example, that has peaks that are 6 dB louder than anything else in the track, limiting the overall mix by 6 dB just takes care of those peaks. Remember that perceived volume is related to average levels, not peaks. A track with a smaller peak to average ratio will be "louder" than a track with a high peak to average ratio that shows the same "volume" on a digital peak meter. Having said that, depending on the type of music you are doing, there is nothing wrong with having some dynamics, and in my opinion, a lot of commercial music out there has sacrificed some life in pursuit of volume.

[xstatic]

Careful with your RMS levels. A lot of current rock/pop is coming out around -12 db. But a lot of heavier stuff is like -6 to -8 db. A lot of limiting going on:)

[thepinkrobot25]

thanx you guys helped a lot

[uplift]

One really useful thing is to listen to those records that sound loud on your studio monitors. It's amazing to hear the difference that there is between what sounds massive on the radio or tv and what's really there on the master. A lot of the time there is a shelf taken off the bass, I would say about 60hz downwards, but the area just above this is heavily compressed multiband style so that it really kicks, its just the subsonics that are 'lost' although modern music systems and fm radio will put back this missing area because they flatter the music.

You will find that if your mix is sounding warm in the bass area that you won't be able to get the volume that you crave.

hope that's some help.

:bounce:

andy reynolds