KVR Audio

Mickey21 · Post by **Mickey21** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 4:35 am

Hallo all

..

I have a question about mastering!.. Recently ive tryed to do it myself but i cant seem to get it Loud enough (like commercial tracks)..

I mix my tracks around -5 dB.. And Then push it to -0.1 dB (using maximizer and sausage fattener).. BUT.. The track is still not Loud!.. My question is!.. Does people Master it louder than 0 dB and use a limiter to keep it Below 0 dB?? To make the lower parts louder?? What could i try to make it louder!.. Without making it Sound distorted and bad!..

Mickey

Any Good Username? · Post by **Any Good Username?** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:31 am

some people master louder than 0 db if they dont care about clipping.

*People will turn their volume up if they need to*

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:49 am

I still think that AGU is a troll and should be banned immediatelly.

Mickey21 · Post by **Mickey21** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:16 am

So warmonger

.. You have givin me some good answers In the past!.. Can you maybe tell me some more about my Problem?

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:33 am

DJ Warmonger wrote:I still think that AGU is a troll and should be banned immediatelly.

He, she or it is definitely trollin.

I'll bet they are from the propellerhead forum.

Hermetech Mastering · Post by **Hermetech Mastering** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 9:13 am

Mickey21 wrote:Hallo all ..

I have a question about mastering!.. Recently ive tryed to do it myself but i cant seem to get it Loud enough (like commercial tracks)..

I mix my tracks around -5 dB.. And Then push it to -0.1 dB (using maximizer and sausage fattener).. BUT.. The track is still not Loud!.. My question is!.. Does people Master it louder than 0 dB and use a limiter to keep it Below 0 dB?? To make the lower parts louder?? What could i try to make it louder!.. Without making it Sound distorted and bad!..

Mickey

There are a number of ways to achieve loudness in mastering, and every track is different. Taking all those variables into consideration, if the client wants it loud, some of the steps might be:

Buss compression
Clipping the ADC
Clipping with a plugin
Clever use of EQ (based on the equal loudness contours)
Brickwall limiting
etc.

Mastering engineers have the experience to know when and how far (or not) to push each stage to get the maximum loudness with the minimum amount of distortion (if that is indeed the goal, a lot of people actually like the sound of really crushed material). That's cos they do it every day, all day!

ImNotDedYet · Post by **ImNotDedYet** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:07 am

Brickwall limiter will do the trick, up the gain on the limiter while keeping the limit at -.1 or something.

But as Hermetech said, mastering engineers how to do it to keep the sound good as well.

Mushy Mushy · Post by **Mushy Mushy** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:17 am

DJ Warmonger wrote:I still think that AGU is a troll and should be banned immediatelly.

Agreed.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:06 am

Kim Lajoye's blog is full of great tips. A starting point:
http://blog.kimlajoie.com/how-to-know-i ... mastering/

Bottom line: it's a form of art and takes years of practice to master (pun intended!)
It's not realistic to aim for single-digit RMS levels when you're just starting.

And get some technical background, first learn the difference between dB Peak (what you're referring to) and RMS (what's perceived as the loudness)
Again our friend Kim has written a primer on the subject:
http://blog.kimlajoie.com/peak-vs-rms/

Any Good Username? · Post by **Any Good Username?** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:11 pm

V0RT3X wrote:
DJ Warmonger wrote:I still think that AGU is a troll and should be banned immediatelly.
He, she or it is definitely trollin.

I'll bet they are from the propellerhead forum.

Yes I am, as you can see my nickname.

I'm from another planet that is far away from earth and I'm gonna destroy KVR

Kill Victories and R*pe

steffeeH · Post by **steffeeH** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:23 pm

Even though loudness is mainly a part of mastering today, a lot can be done in the mixing phase.
I recently watched a tutorial about this, where a professional mixed a track and constantly looked at the fader output volume.
Of course he did like most good mixer engineers would do, worked hard to get a clean and nice mix, though he also kept an eye on the master output and tried if possible to make his mixing decisions have an effect on the output level - to decrease it if possible without too audible bad artifacts.

Then to the mastering phase, try to do many small moves rather than a few big ones.

All that being said, it's silly how people forget how easy it really is to turn up the volume if necessary - loudness is far from the magical solution of producing professional sounding music. Focus on getting an amazing musical masterpiece instead.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Jul 28, 2014 4:59 pm

A lot of how far you can push the volume during mastering comes during the mixing stage as mention, and even more important in some cases, the song arrangement. A well balanced mix that's not overly busy is much easier to get loud before problems start appearing than something that is super busy and congested. If you listen to your favorite loud songs, USUALLY they are pretty sparse in terms of the number of instruments being used.

That said, mastering engineers certainly have the experience and gear to push it over the top if you need it stupid loud too. Possible to do it yourself as well, it just takes lots of practice, there's no simple tricks to it.

Questions about mastering?