Original Message 1/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  12:24 AM   -   Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

LK

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I typically record my drum tracks in Acid, import into Cubase, record the vox and instruments, then master in Soundforge 5.0. The question: how do normalize or raise the master volume of the stereo mixdown to ultra-high, commercial CD levels cleanly without distorting it? (note: I usually run the mix through a Waves compressor 1st).

Thanks...

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Message 2/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  12:56 AM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

influx

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theres a program called loudness maximizer that works well. some disagree, but..

what youre looking at is a limiter, but...well...to get it sounding like a commercial CD I dont think there is one fix-all. others would be far better at this than I

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Message 3/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  01:18 AM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

bedwyr

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agreed, but i think waves ultramaximizer does a good job at getting things louder. a lot of it is to do with your mixing before hand though, just don't pump the bass & kick too much coz they rob the energy from the rest of the mix. i think, and don't quote me, that the loudness is generally in the mids. just because you've got your kick drum and bassline loud and proud, it wont sound loud ... ahhh ... shit... bolox  

don't mind me, use ultramaximiser

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Message 4/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  01:53 AM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

k

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true, crush the mix too much and it looses energy as everything is flat dynamic's wise... thats where (if required) you want to compress mebbe certain freq' bands?.... but crush the kik to much with overall compression and it looses punch. what I do is mix hot using compression there to get it just right, then i can opush it up a tad more with some limiting or peak compression enuff to make it a tad hotter but not kill the kik.

anyways if you have to seperate the freq bands and compress them differently with multiband Compression .. various units do that such as finaliser.

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 5/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  02:52 AM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

influx

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also just make sure youre at good volume with individual tracks

do a search for "gain staging" at say prorec.com or SOS or the like. Pretty important to consider, but often overlooked

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Message 6/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  03:04 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

k

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yeah no but dont go too much on that, dance doesnt have any rules for gain really on the actual mixing board (analog)... often the best sound results from totaly dstroying traditional gain arrangements.

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 7/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  05:32 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

knowa

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I had 14 day demo of the L1 Ultramaximizer and am totally certain that I cannot go on living without it. I'm no veteran, but it really blew me away and I would definitely say look into it. people also rave about the PSP Mixpack which is pretty cheap but I never heard it.

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Message 8/12                 Date: 20-Dec-01  @  07:44 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

influx

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nah but K...gain staging..if you try to boost a weak signal too much later in the chain you get more noise than signal (well maybe not that bad) but thats what I meant

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Message 9/12                 Date: 22-Dec-01  @  08:15 AM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

Brett B

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I have had a lot of success with using two Waves RCL's. They are in my opinion the best software compressor. The fisrt in the chain I set it to a very soft compresion preset. "Master opto" with the gain reduction at -6db and the threshold not to deep. maybe -4 into the level of the track. This fills in the bottom but leaves all the punch and dynamics. It does lessen the level, and that is where the second RCL comes in. Set it to "loud and Proud". Boost the gain reduction up until the loudest part of the song is just at the zero DB level. Leave the threshold at zero. The maximizers are much harsher and flaten out the dynamics. Nothing can compare to a tube compressor and tube leveling amplifyer, but the waves RCL is the closest software alternative that I have come across.

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Message 10/12                 Date: 22-Dec-01  @  05:22 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

LK

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I have to agree with you on the Waves RCL. Really warm for digital. I'll definitely try your suggestion. Thanks very much for the tip.

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Message 11/12                 Date: 22-Dec-01  @  05:44 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

k

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try that bbe sonic maximiser plugin it is excellent!

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 12/12                 Date: 22-Dec-01  @  10:46 PM   -   RE: Maximum Volume Levels Possible?

Brett B

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It add a lot of seperation to the lows and makes the highs crisper. I have read it can make the highs a little too noisey though. It's fair;y cheap. My next investment is the fatso compressor with a transistor for creating tape saturation and also an analog subharmonic generator for creating bass under non bass tracks. Max bass is cool for adding bass above your signal, but to add it below is what I want.

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