Saturators are also great for increasing volume without harsh clipping (if used lightly). When you are EQing tracks, listen carefully, and do your best to make it sound natural. Everything that everyone mentioned can no doubt effect your perceived volume, but the reason your track doesn't sound as loud as commercial music is mostly in the brickwall limiting in my opinion. compression. if you send your tracks to a mastering engineer, they will no doubt use a brickwall limiter to get the songs up to a competitive volume. Use compressors mostly, limiters sparingly (on master bus). Here are 7 tactics that I suggest using: 1. (Your Mileage May Vary). Most people will just slap a limiter or a compressor and limiter combo on their master bus and just bump the input gain to make it loud; what they don't realize is the loudest frequencies (usually the lows of the kick drum or the mids of the guitar) are hitting the compressor FIRST and compressing the entire track before it gets a chance to breathe- which isn't bad for some styles like EDM, but for sheer, clean loudness you need to bring those factors down before you compress and adjust to the loudness of your choice. Compression Trick That Boosts Loudness Without Destroying Your Music. each in the right amounts in the right spots. Boost your output level to taste but leave a little head room on your VU for the lows... EQ (again) - bring those lows back into the mix without clipping the meter (but come as close as you can) :-). While I'm all about retaining transients and dynamics, it's a reality of modern music that if you keep your songs at lets say -6db RMS or so to make sure nothing clips, your song cannot compete with other music because it's just way too quiet. That is precisely the tool that gets used to increase the "loudness" of something without clipping. Here's a funsperiment for everyone: Put your entire mix through an overblown compressor/saturator/limiter, maybe even a guitar amp plugin. (BTW - Im not suggesting OP or anyone else needs to take a uni class on psychoacoustics to get to grips with it). Can you still hear all of the instruments distinctly? Turn your speakers down. Learn compression first, the other two are very intuative and limiting is a derivative of compression anyway c: EQ. I'm pretty new to this so sorry if it's such an obvious answer but idk how to fix it. Products, practices, and stories about the profession or hobby of recording, editing, and producing audio. most A-list mastering engineers clip their converters on a regular basis. Hit the thing relatively hard. Most plugins nowadays have an input and output gain, but if you don't have the option within a plugin used, be sure to match input and output gain after any processing you apply. Announcement: New AudioAcrobat VoIP Phone System! The simplest answer is sometimes the right one, so don’t over-complicate it if you don’t have to. Setting normalization to -1dB will set the highest peak to -1dB and the rest of the audio will increase accordingly. automation. i like to clone tracks if something is too quiet if i want to maintain the dynamics. Read up on dBFS, dBTP, LUFS, and volume normalization versus peak normalization. A slower attack let's the transients through. EQ - cut lows and make a nice even mix that isn't too boomy (or even a mix that SOUNDS like it needs more lows - they're going to be there, trust me.). Audacity: Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift (Windows 7), Audacity: Trim Peaks to Boost Loudness (Without Clipping), Audacity: Delay for Multiple Echo Effect (Windows 7). experience. Increase perceived volume without clipping. For example, if your loudest part is currently at -9dB and your lowest part is at -60dB, normalizing to -2dB will increase your loudest part to -2dB and your quietest part to -53dB. And if you want it "louder", turn up your playback volume. Read up on dBFS, dBTP, LUFS, and volume normalization versus peak normalization. Automate the Volume Compress with fast attack and release, or something that fits mathematically in the speed of the song. But keep... 2. A nice little trick I like to use when ITB mastering is a four-plugin process. This depends on the dynamic ratio of the signal though. Step 2: Set Ratios Lower and Thresholds Higher. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the audioengineering community. It wasn't until I took a psychoacoustics class in college that I really got a grasp of that. Serious answer: You have a volume knob on your interface. Don't smash it, but around 3db of attenuation should be sufficient. saturation/distortion. experience. Serious answer: You have a volume knob on your interface. Press J to jump to the feed. Use it. Is there anything else I should be doing? Odds are high you have too much bass in the mix.A real mastering engineer will tell you what's going on with your mixes.Saturation is one way to get more volume.Comparative EQ is another.Careful bass control is most of it. Normally between-5dB and -3dB is ideal and optimal levels for any plugin you add after. 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