Question about mastering and output volume

[LG18]

Hi.

I've been getting to grips with my mixing and mastering over the past few months, and while i've gotten my tracks to sound a great deal better than they were before, one thing I'm unsure of is overall loudness.

In the attached picture I have one of my tracks on the top, and then below it the Get away remix by Koven.
With theirs you see the wave forms pushed right up to the top, where as mine aren't.

Getting my track to look and sound as loud as the aforementioned Koven release requires me to push the level up on the master and go into red.
I'm sure this is a total noob question but can anyone shed some light?

Cheers

 

[T3chnicuz]

Do you use a limiter or loudness maximiser on the master? For self-mastering I use isotope Ozone, which provides a loudness maximiser. This will push the sound waves together and as a result increase the volume.

Ozone also provides other good mastering tools such as an exciter to increase stereo width etc..

 

[-agu-]

Getting my track to look and sound as loud as the aforementioned Koven release requires me to push the level up on the master and go into red.View attachment 7323

So? He most likely does it too. Either by actually clipping the waveform or by using plugins. Even Bob Katz agrees that while it's not exactly a healthy practice, you can get away with something like 1dB of analog clipping and 1dB of digital clipping. And that was on traditional music. When it comes EDM, I'd say you can get away with a lot more.

 

[manirios]

As mentioned, limiters might help here. It could provide the loudness without having to increase the volume (so perceived as louder). I use it on individual tracks however, not on the master channel.