Mix Down Volume Low

[charlescchan]

HI Multitrack/pwnified!

First off thanks for making a great product. I've been having problems with a song recently and have been searching for an answer to that I can't find in the forums! I have a song using at least 20 tracks (vocals, electric guitar, Cajone, sax, acoustic guitar, harmonies), all with different volume levels to make it sound right. But after I do the mix down, the whole song volume on the .m4a is quite low and I'm getting a bit scared that I can't get it up; that being the case I'll be quite disappointed as well because I've spent a loot of time on this song. I was wondering if the was a fix for this, something that I might have overlooked! Thanks for your help! I really need it (I can't find the solution)!!!

Charles

[pwnified]

Welcome to the world of mastering
Audio is mixed in 24 bits, so when MultiTrack creates a mixdown, it needs to fit into 16 bits, so it normalizes the entire mix so that the highest peaking waveform doesn't clip, because it's better to sound quiet than to have a clip somewhere in the mix. To get the volume to sound louder, you'll have to find the peak and remove it or drop the track that has the peaks, or use a compressor to level off the peaks on that track. Or, the mastering section in the OUT popup has a compressor, you can use that to increase the perceived volume.

[charlescchan]

Thanks for the answers so far and for taking the time to write them.

Just 2 questions. What do you mean exactly by perceived sound? (in the your last sentence?) the compressor will increase the overall sound of the song? How do I do that in the fx master Out Compressor?

Along the same question, do I decrease/increase threshold, ratio, attack, or release (I'm so new to this), in order to lower the peaks on a certain track?

Thanks so much!

[pwnified]

The volume of the sound we perceive is dependent on energy, and not peak amplitude, a compressor will increase the energy of a waveform at the expense of distortion and reduced dynamics. To adjust the compressor in the master section, start with the threshold at say -15db and ratio at maybe 3:1. The attack is basically the speed at which the compressor modifies the signal, so to trim transients you'll need a fast attack time. The release is the speed that it returns to normal. So really the settings are entirely dependent on the type of music.

Sound on sound has some good articles on compressors, make sure to check them out:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan01/a ... vanced.asp

[christophermiller]

This is exactly what I needed to know thanks so much.

A question though, why does MTDAW have to mix down to 16 bits. It most likely very obvious I just have no idea. If we mix in 24bit why can't we just export in 24bit? Is it a limitation of the iPhone.

Its probably a noob question.