Turn up the volume in Audition

[ScroogeMcDuck]

Hi everyone!

I have a problem. I use Reason and when I mixdown my files they are all to low in volume. I want the same volume as on CD's. Is there a good way of turning up the volume in Audition? I've tried the compressors and limiters but the result is some serious clipping (the drums). How do I turn up without clipping?

Hope anyone can help cuz this is a serious problem.. (I'm quite a n00b!)

Thanks!
SMD

WOOPS! COULD ANYONE MOVE THIS TO THE AUDITION SECTION OF THIS FORUM? I POSTED IT THE WRONG PLACE.

[StephenMarshMastering]

"I've tried the compressors and limiters but the result is some serious clipping (the drums). How do I turn up without clipping?"


mastering.....and most likely some mix tweaking as well....and that's way too complicated a subject with unlimited variables to give you much applicable help in this forum. You've got to experiment and see what works for you - use your ears and think like an engineer. If you want the gig - that's the gig! Engineering is all about continuously learning what works for you.

Let's face it - the internet has done a lot of things - making everyone into a good engineer isn't one of them.

Regardless of the subject - There's a real good reason people that don't know what they're doing, don't know what they're doing - it's generally for lack of having done it. While recording music these days is extremely easy and cheap - recording it WELL still takes a LOT of time and dedication - there's no way around it. Asking a simple question here or there can certainly point you in the right direction but it's not going to TEACH you anything.

Guidance may help you get better, but to get 'good' in the first place takes education and experience, trial and error, success and failure. You already posses all the tools needed to make mistakes and learn from them.

I completely appreciate your enthusiasm - that's another fantastic asset!

--Steph

[Electriclight]

Originally Posted by ScroogeMcDuck

I've tried the compressors and limiters but the result is some serious clipping (the drums). How do I turn up without clipping?

A limiter set to less than 0dB should not allow clipping. It may squash the hell out of your signal, but not clip!

The following is advice from a non-expert which may be at least as helpful as non-advice from an expert:

First, manually reduce the gain of any major spikes that you see in your waveforms. That will allow you compressor to work with a more manageable signal.

Listen to you mix and make sure the balance is to your liking. If vocals or something else is getting lost, apply some gentle compression to that individual track.

On your final output channel try a compressor (or two) followed by a limiter set to 0dB. Of course you will need to experiment with settings and gain levels...and yes this is an artform... and yes it requires practice and experience...and no, you may never get professional quality... but with this technique you should be able to get SOMETHING DECENT. If it was impossible, why would we be wasting our time here?

Good luck, Dave

[ScroogeMcDuck]

Originally Posted by Electriclight

A limiter set to less than 0dB should not allow clipping. It may squash the hell out of your signal, but not clip!

The following is advice from a non-expert which may be at least as helpful as non-advice from an expert:

First, manually reduce the gain of any major spikes that you see in your waveforms. That will allow you compressor to work with a more manageable signal.

Listen to you mix and make sure the balance is to your liking. If vocals or something else is getting lost, apply some gentle compression to that individual track.

On your final output channel try a compressor (or two) followed by a limiter set to 0dB. Of course you will need to experiment with settings and gain levels...and yes this is an artform... and yes it requires practice and experience...and no, you may never get professional quality... but with this technique you should be able to get SOMETHING DECENT. If it was impossible, why would we be wasting our time here?

Good luck, Dave

Thanks a lot for your explanations, it is a great help. I will try this out! (I saved your explanations in a document) I just don't know how to turn down specific spikes in the waveforms in Adobe Audition.

But how do the pro's do? I mean to get professional quality? Do they upload the song to some kind of mastering device or something? I always wondered how, and since I'm quite new to all this I haven't found out yet..

[Electriclight]

Originally Posted by ScroogeMcDuck

Thanks I just don't know how to turn down specific spikes in the waveforms in Adobe Audition.

I'm sure that Audition must have some type of gain editing. Probably, you select a section of the waveform, right click, and find GAIN on the menu. Reduce it by a factor, say -2dB. That gives your compressor more space to work.

Read Brandon's article on loud mixes:
Getting Your Mixes Loud

[brandondrury]

I've tried the compressors and limiters but the result is some serious clipping (the drums).

RED FLAG!

Compressors don't cause clipping. Poor gain structure causes clipping. In fact, compressors catch peaks (depending on how attack times are set) and reduce them (unless you are using compression ratios of less than 1:1 which turns the compressor into an expander).

How do I turn up without clipping?

On the 2bus, you need a brickwall limiter of some type that will catch completely stop any all signals from crossing a given threshould you set.

What you are referring to is partially a job for mastering, but it is also a question that is 100% relevant for good mixing. Getting loud is just as much the job of a mixer as it is for the mastering engineer. Anyone who disagrees, I'm sure I can cook up a mix that NO ONE can make loud.

Why don't you post a clip? I'm more curious about how you are managing dynamics in your mix than what you are doing on your 2bus. I just added another 7 pages to my home recording book this morning on the this very topic of 2 bus compression and limiting.

If vocals or something else is getting lost, apply some gentle compression to that individual track.

Or crush the damn thing. You can decide which one sounds best to you. Michael Wagener probably ended up with 30dB of reduction on the lead vocal at the recording workshop.

I think the web pushes for "subtle" too much. I say find the "right" amount of compression. How much is that? I have no idea. I just push buttons and twist knobs until something else in the mix pisses me off more.

This "subtle" topic is interesting. People always say "turn the gain down on your electric guitar". Just because many people use so much gain that the tone turns fizzy doesn't mean my guitar needs it's gain turned down. The same goes with compression.

Brandon

[ScroogeMcDuck]

Thanks, I didn't know all this stuff! But Brandon, you say that the mixer is important in making the mix loud. But what if I e.g. make a mix with the Redrum Drum Computer in Reason 4? It isn't "outside" the computer so I don't record it through a mixer. I just have my keyboard, synth, mic and stuff like that connected to my mixer, and when I record them into my PC I can select the volume that I want to record it with. I mean, how do I change a mix that is in my computer with the analog mixer? All the stuff I make "inside" the computer, I can't run that stuff through my mixer when it isn't a physical instrument.

(My mixer: Behringer SL2442FX PRO Eurodesk)

I have not created any specific mixes at the time so I can't upload anything right now..

Sorry for all my beginner questions..

[brandondrury]

But Brandon, you say that the mixer is important in making the mix loud.

By mixer, I meant the human being doing the mixing. Sorry. English is a stupid language sometimes.

There is nothing about a mixing console that would make your mixes any louder without using hardware compression or limiting which can be done in the computer with plugins anyway.

[acoustic]

Thumbs up Re: Turn up the volume in Audition
hay man do you normalize each track
well i to have had clips but i record at about -6 on a track make sure there is no clips then i use adobe auditions normalize set on decibels format i normalize at -2 from 0db then if the
vol is not to your likeing you can use as brandon sead a brick wall limiter I use a 22hz
wave plugin and a l3 wave plugin setting at manual or arc and i use 1.5 audition most of the time try normalizeing your track then boost your vol

acoustic

[brandondrury]

I haven't normalized a track in 5 years. I don't see the point.

Brandon