Greg and the Rev running neck and neck! I'm trying to get folks in here to vote (for me of course ) but I think we all need to step it up a bit....

Hey it's hard. I'm asking people to vote, and they say they will, then....


Maybe we need a scandel to get some publicity. Got any ideas beergeek?

Dude, I *AM* a scandal

Ouch, I totally forgot to look here recently. The voting is going.

Squids,
The first link I posted is dead. This one works now:

http://www.4shared.com/file/14626257/7afcd1/Up_River.html

No one has to vote for me, but please take a listen! It's a little reggae thing done 100% in Sampletank and Cubase SL.

I'm a mixing newb and had a hard time getting the levels to come out loud enough. Question for you guys: Did I leave out a step or 2 in this process?

- Record MIDI for 8 Sampletank tracks
- Apply effects, EQ, compression to each track
- Mess with volume faders to get a good sounding mix, but don't exceed 0 dB on any track or on master fader
- Bounce mix to a stereo WAV file
- WAV file doesn't sound as good or as loud as mix does in Cubase!? Try to do some newby mastering of WAV mix file using limiter and compressor, but doesn't help much.
- Convert WAV to MP3

Do you guys bounce each MIDI file to audio individually before you do a final mixdown? What is meant by proper "gain staging"? When do you need to use normallizing or limiting? I know I could get a better final mix with the setup I have, so any suggestions are welcome.

Solariss

Some may not agree with my approach, but let me lay it out. When I finish a mix, I render it as a .wav. I bring that up in an editing program (Sound Forge for me) and normalize and compress. If I decide, for example, that the bass is too loud, I'll sometimes eq, but I'll usually go back to the mix and fix it there. For me, I almost always do normalizing and some light (i.e. 2:1 at - 4db) compression. BTW, If I am getting the song mastered, I'd leave all of this out.

After all of that, I render any other (i.e. mp3) formats.

You can do this in Cubase, but at least for me, it's easier in an editing program.

As an added point, I do not normalize to 0db. The closest I get is .05db.
Now I'm sure other people will do this differently, and I'd like to hear their method.

Fixed your link Solariss. Good luck!


Well, guys, looks like we have some competition going! Let's get more people to vote. Has anyone bumped my thread in the music cafe? Beer's got the right idea putting something in his sig. (hence 3 votes too, not bad buddy!). Promote yourself! Mention it whenever you can, wherever you see the relevance (oh and by the way I... pls vote...).

Let's do it! Go go go!!!! Haha. Typing enthusiasm.

Dude, I have shamelessly bumped that thread I think twice now

I posted over on the DUC but I'm not really active anywhere else these days.

Sold Live and Reason so I could post there but ethics prevent it. What the hell am I saying?

Times like these I wish I had friends

Rev and Greg, you rock. Somebody else vote for me please. Yes, I'm begging

Just vote

I think we're all feeling lonely here. For example, Shantar has some awesome demos, and doesn't have one vote. And he's not alone. That doesn't make sense. Maybe things will pick up. (I couldn't find a "hopeful" emoticon.)

I think part of the problem might be the time commitment involved in listening to all the entries in order to make an informed choice. To my ear, all the entries are quality creations and represent some very diverse musical ideas. There are some standouts (and I think that's being acknowledged ) but to sit down and listen to 15+ entries really takes a big chunk out of the time a lot of people on this board would like to spend creating their own new music. Just sayin'.

Cheers
-B

Rev's got a whole lot more friends than me...well, a whole lot more talent too but let's not go there

Thanks for the compliment, but I think it has more to do with my finely honed begging skills!