Levels

theredi

New Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Greetings all
first post for me tho i have been sneaking around for a while.

ok whats really bugging me is my levels.
im using cubase 5 and all the levels sound good with the master as loud as possible without any clipping.

ok so i export the track but when playing in winamp the tune is very low on the EQ readout,where as dnb tunes ive bought (finished ones) and internet radio (rudefm.com) (<--little plug there) all show nicely on the EQ (nice high bars).

its doing my nut in as i have finished tunes but dont know what im doing wrong here.

ups!

theredi
 
cheers but i cant seem to find any option like that in preferences.
at the moment im exporting to .wav @48 kHz and thats about all the options i seem to have (or see)

---------- Post added at 13:49 ---------- Previous post was at 13:46 ----------

@logikz there is..it looks dead on the eq
ill cut a lil sample,tho the levels still arent tweaked properly its just bugging me how i have max output in cubase with no clipping then its not very loud via winamp etc.

---------- Post added at 13:59 ---------- Previous post was at 13:49 ----------

ok this isnt about the layout or anything else as its unfinished,its just the overall level:

http://www.in2designs.co.uk/My DnB/Crooked I - C22.mp3

---------- Post added at 14:01 ---------- Previous post was at 13:59 ----------

also i had to make that into an mp3 as a wavs way to big to upload but still its the same problem.
 
sounds alright to me mate, loudness is never something to bother about, who ever wants it louder can just turn it up with the volume knob. your shit sounds loud man. id worry more about making good music instead. do you have an amp? one of them shits you get with stereo hifi equipment that got a 5 band eq on whatever? you want it louder, just run your master through that, max out the gain and eq to taste. record that. loud as hell. its an idea.
 
it just really bugs me that i can pick any tune,even an old tune from 92 thats been put on an mp3 and it still shows nicely on the EQ of winamp.

why wont mine show up nicely :(
 
Winamp eq? don't break your balls over that, it isn't really the sound engineer tool is it?

Also, most commercial stuff you hear has gone through mastering, and that's something you generally don't want to do yourself. If you have a few extra €€$$££ lying around you can send a few tracks to be mastered in some digital mastering house @ 15$£€per track and you'll hear what it can do to the sound.

Then furthermore, all radio stations, even internet ones, use a master compression before they hit the airwaves to achieve maximum signal strength (pretty fucking useless on internet radios tbh but they still do it) to avoid any disturbance in the air. This will flatten the dynamics even more. In fact I recently heard the Apex remix of 'Just One Second' by London Electricity and I thought it was some new remix, even though I have the track on vinyl right here. It just sounded so squashed through Bassdrive's native compression form. IMO all the best drops in tunes sound so lame through radio because of this.

So bottom line, don't sweat it man, just turn the volume dial up a few notches when you compare your tune with the commercial stuff, and worry more about getting the tonal balance right (highs not ear-pearcing, bass rocking the house etc.)
 
point taken but im not using winamp as an engineering tool but still it does show a major difference between my tunes and anything else played on it.
its just one of those things that bugs me,other than that im quite happy with my levels really.

cheers for the response tho.
ups!
 
I've got the same problem as this guy, not the EQ part but generally the volume of my track once i'm done with it, i'm normally happy with the way the track sounds but commercial tracks and some tracks posted by forum members are just so much louder than mine.
I've noticed that if I put a commerical track into logic the track is constantly around the same db, I am aware that some type of compression/limiting is used to keep it at a constant volume but my tracks just fluctuate up and down in volume. Just wondering what techniques I can use because it's something thats been bugging me for a while.
 
when comparing your stuff to commercial stuff, turn down the commercial ones to the same percieved loudness as yours, as opposed to the other direction, makes just much more sense really.

and in general, as logikz said, nothing id worry about.. we get our tracks played out fairly regularly and no one ever complained that the tunes have been to low to mix or something. make the mixdown perfect and itll sound good regardless of the volume.

and btw, you got any limiting/compression on the master for playing out? i usually squash it by 5db with a limiter, works quite well, cause imo you hear the differnces in the dynamics much more than the loudness difference when playing on big systems.
 
Maybe adding some form of preamp to your masterchannel before bouncing/rendering, some eqs have an added pre amp, like the one in i-tunes for example, free g from sonalksis is very good and its free,,
 
Youll find that alot of the bulk to the track will be added in the mastering
Or by simple techniques such as parallel compression
Your main priority is to EQ your sounds and mix them down on the fly
Once your track is finished just duplicate it a couple of times and compress the low pass track to give the boom
But be careful not to clog up the low end as things will get muddy and overpower other sounds
Make sure nothing hits higher than 0,
If you still cant hear it then turn it up on your audio interface ;)
 
Forget all the above........ive had the same problem. Just make the track sound as good as possible without worrying about the volumn......Keep the master out from red-lineing (play the loudest part on loop, usually the middle part of the track with bass) and once you're happy with the sound of the track export it as a wav. 24bit. Then send it to be mastered proffessionally.

When it comes back it'll be the same level as tracks your've downloaded from download stores. What im saying is concerntrate on making sick tracks and let the proffesional masterers get the volumn levels right.....i wouldnt play any track on radio or at a booking unless its been mastered proffessionally.
 
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