keeping vsti volume up during mixdown

[bookman]

I just discovered this forum and hope someone can toss a suggestion my way.

I am running Cubase 4.5.2 (full version) on a Windows XP Pro Core 2 Duo machine with 4 GB of ram. I am running my project at 24/96. I have recorded a midi file using Pianoteq as a vsti and a Yamaha s90es keyboard as the controller.

I can play back the recorded midi file in Cubase and listen over headphones or my near-field monitors and the volume will be as loud as I can bear. I can freeze the track and play the "frozen" track and have plenty of volume in Cubase. But when I mix the track down to a 16/44.1 .wav file and burn it to a CD the volume is incredibly low. Even after normalizing the 24/96 audio file to -6, the volume is so low after mixing down that I have to turn the CD player volume up all the way to just barely hear it.

My question is this...what trick is there to recording a vsti (especially Pianoteq) in such a way that the resulting audio file has plenty of volume? Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Bookman

[tacman7]

Are you adding the HR appogee dither plug in on your master bus?
Not that it would change your problem, just S.O.P. for exporting to a different bit depth.

So this is a frozen VSTi? That's just a wav file (with behind the scenes handling) so it should just work. I would try as a troubleshooting test to export the piano by itself back into the project at 24/96 then mute the VSTi and try to export the song using 'that' wav file.

Unless you have some automation on that your not seeing or something, sounds like something is not right. I would write Steinberg or ask at the Cubase forum.

[bookman]

I have taken the frozen .wav file and listened to it the same way, and exported it. Still the overall volume of the resulting file is very low. I have not tried using the Apogee plugin.

You mentioned something that causes me to wonder about my method of mixing down the track. This may sound like a huge strike of ignorance, but I really don't know anything about the idea of master buses. To get the file that I described in my initial post, I just placed locators at the beginning and end of the track I wanted to hear on CD, soloed that track and muted any others, then did the file>mixdown>audio routine, and saved the resulting .wav file. I took that file and burned it to a CDR.

It sounds as though I'm leaving out something, that maybe I should be bouncing my individual tracks to a master track (whatever that is), then mixdown that track. Maybe you can clarify that for me.

Thanks.