overall mix down volume

[jseib2293]

My volume on mixdown is typically lower than other recordings that are played on my devices. I sometimes create a playlist of my mp.4 mixdown file, and played after anyother recording the audio may be barely audible. I can turn it up, and it sounds fine.

I usually try to mix as loud as I can without red lining the volume meters, either on the tracks or on the master. Is there another way to bump the volume in the mixdown that I am missing so it is more comparable to other audioj files that I got from other recordings (C-D's , itunes etc.).

[martygras]

That sounds odd. My mixes aren't compressed to death so my stuff is a tad softer than commercial releases, but not drastically quieter.

When you use "mixdown" it is supposed apply all effects/levels/pans etc. and then normalize the final track. It sounds like it didn't normalize during the mixdown process.

Which idevice are you using?
Are you using the most current version? (iOS and MT DAW)
Have you done a hard "reboot" lately?

It is possible that if you have one area of your song that spikes much higher than the rest of the song then normalizing will only raise the track so the highest peak is at 0dB and the rest of the track is still relatively soft. This is where compression can help smooth out those transients and bring up the quiet spots.

[jseib2293]

Actually, the volume seems better after the final mixdown is then burned to disc... imported straight to itunes it is softer than commercial recordings, but after it goes to cd it seems ok.

[martygras]

That actually doesn't make sense unless iTunes has a compression feature.

Sometimes a song is fairly even in volume , but there's one point in the song where there's a spike or loud transient such as an extra loud bass hit. (low frequencies can have a huge effect on spiking.)

If this is the case, then normalizing will only increase the song to the point where that one spike is at its highest level (0 dB). The rest of the song would still be the same "relative" volume compared to the spike and seem to be too quiet.
This is where compression comes in handy. Actually I lied. A "limiter" is the ideal effect, but the compressor in MDAW is a really nice compressor that also helps with limiting.

If you look closely at the waveform you can see the spike, but in a long song it can be very hard to detect.

[pwnified]

Yes, this is all good information, and spiky waveforms usually have this effect on a normalization pass. One thing though, in order to "match" a commercial CD or typical iTunes song volume, you're going to have to add a MASSIVE amount of compression in the master. It's just the modern format and volume war that's been plaguing the music industry.

[martygras]

I used to use SoundForge for this purpose. I would zoom in to the highest transient and "re-draw" the waveform lower. It could not be heard because it would only affect a few samples at 16 bit.