Volume and SPAN

khujo1023

khujo1023

Active Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
I've been working to get more umph out of my mixes with varying results. Skills on the mix have improved but I've been looking at other tracks in SPAN and find that mine are hitting close to the same marks but don't have the volume as tracks in the same range. I've also been looking at the wave forms for the tracks in Audacity and on Soundcloud and have noticed the waves are fuller, some of them have been limited to shit but still sound good.

I've played around with limiting and compression to squeeze a bit more out of my tracks but keep hitting an area where it just sounds distorted even though its not red lining.

Any suggestions?
 
Suggestions are: trust your ears and you'll be good. Those tracks are that way because they're compressed to shit, meaning they sacrifice everything over loudness.

Please don't enter the "I need to be LOUD to be good" mindset we have everywhere now.
 
Dark Lizardro said:
Suggestions are: trust your ears and you'll be good. Those tracks are that way because they're compressed to shit, meaning they sacrifice everything over loudness.

Please don't enter the "I need to be LOUD to be good" mindset we have everywhere now.
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I want to be loud but not distorted or missing quality.... Plus I'm not that educated enough to pull of loud and good. So no worries
 
khujo1023 said:
I've been working to get more umph out of my mixes with varying results. Skills on the mix have improved but I've been looking at other tracks in SPAN and find that mine are hitting close to the same marks but don't have the volume as tracks in the same range. I've also been looking at the wave forms for the tracks in Audacity and on Soundcloud and have noticed the waves are fuller, some of them have been limited to shit but still sound good.

I've played around with limiting and compression to squeeze a bit more out of my tracks but keep hitting an area where it just sounds distorted even though its not red lining.

Any suggestions?
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Wouldn't go for compression/limiting.
 
-agu- said:
The stereo field looks like a diamond, rather than a circle.
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hm...
what is the connection between the stereo field and the loudness contour? just open reference track in the editor and check the mono channel.
 
-agu- said:
Soft clipping/saturation.
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I'd say its a balance of the 2 or more techniques, it doesn't matter how you get there after all, just the end product. And ignore old man river (darkie) to an extent, your tune still has to hold up when DJin loudness wise or it'll sound shit but sub genre plays a part here. Wouldnt slam the shit out everything in a liquid track but for a hard tech tune you might need to...
 
Also are you comparing your unmastered tracks to mastered tracks? If so that's where the loudness usually comes from although you can mix into a limiter from the start like I think Break does, which kinda gives you a louder track if done right.
 
RUSSLA said:
Also are you comparing your unmastered tracks to mastered tracks? If so that's where the loudness usually comes from although you can mix into a limiter from the start like I think Break does, which kinda gives you a louder track if done right.
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That's a big if imo.
 
I mix into a limiter with varying good/bad results. Trust your ears and aim for loudness but don't over do it, dynamics are far more important.

Also if your ableton ive found the following workflow pretty good...

Open Ableton > Glue Comp on Master (default) > Mix down as you create > Bounce out for separate mastering project > Limit / EQ
 
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ManuForti said:
I mix into a limiter with varying good/bad results. Trust your ears and aim for loudness but don't over do it dynamics are far more important.

Also if your ableton ive found the following workflow pretty good...

Open Ableton > Glue Comp on Master (default) > Mix down as you create > Bounce out for separate mastering project > Limit / EQ
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OR JUST TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR SPEAKERS :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
-agu- said:
Go tell that to every club owner. Every official who makes decisions about dB limits for different areas. Every DJ who can't make your tune fit in their latest mix because it's not as loud as the other tunes.
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if you ain't redlining, you ain't headlining :lol:
 
You are not going to be able to duplicate the waveform of a mastered track very easy with a mix. Mastering brings the quiet parts up and the loudest parts to a consistent 0db.

Try making sure you mixes are good first with plenty of headroom. Look at the waveform of your drums (which tend to be the loudest spikes - easily spotted on a mastered track) and try and get good consistency level wise. When you zoom out of the waveform, they should be almost look like a solid block. Fill the bass in. Does your waveform suddenly jump all over the place? Use your mixing skills to get it nice and even looking. Then fill in the rest of the track. Aim for a good consistent looking mix with a sound you are happy with. Trust your ears, but use the waveform as reference. Try and find a copy of the vst s(m)exoscope which is a real time waveform viewer, its pretty handy. Then when you are happy with that think about mastering. It might be a good idea to send of for mastering at first and see what comes back - compare your mix against the mastered version.

If your mix is solid, the mastering engineer has an easier job and your track will sound better. There isnt a mastering engineer alive who can fix a shoddy mix,
I would treat mastering as an entirely separate process and unless you are actually are Break then leave the limiter off while you make the track! Good luck! :)
 
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