HELP!! I need my CD to be louder!

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Member Since: Aug 02, 2007

Hey... My recordings are loud however, when I transfer the songs onto a cd the sound is quiet. I was screwed by one of those master by mail companies so I'm trying to master the CD myself, however somewhere in the transfer I am losing my volume. Any suggestions on burning software or other software that will help me with my problem?

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Aug 02, 2007 01:09 pm

How did you "master" it? Did you use any maximizers, saturation plugs or anything like that?

Member
Since: Jan 26, 2004


Aug 04, 2007 02:54 pm

waves ultramizer, steinberg magneto etc...i can go on

Member
Since: Jan 18, 2003


Aug 04, 2007 05:10 pm

you need to turn down the rest of reality. the knob is usually behind the curtain, on the left.

just kidding; i have problems with loudness too.

Member
Since: Aug 02, 2007


Aug 05, 2007 11:33 pm

I haven't truly "mastered" it. I am happy with the way it sounds. I used Vintage Warmer to boost the levels a bit and it sounds loud and big on the computer. I am just having a lot of trouble transfering that sound to disc.

P.S. I should point out that I am relatively new to home recording.

Member
Since: Jul 10, 2007


Aug 06, 2007 12:47 pm

I have a little rant on why i think mastering is really important over on my little home audio blog here: homestudiograbbag.blogspot.com. Your songs being loud enough on a CD would probably be fixed by a good mastering job but a good mastering job is not just about making your songs sound loud on a CD.

So the thing to do is open your finalized 2 track mixes in an editor and take a look at how loud they really are after bouncing. Basically you want the peaks to be as loud as they possibly can be without redlining. Almost any sound editor will allow you to boost gain or normalize to a certain percentage. You just have to try and tweak it until you get the most volume you can without peaking out or cutting things off.

If you do that and you still don't have that *loud* sound you want, then you need to start thinking about dynamics processing... in otherwords running some compression/limiting on your main mix to reduce the dynamic range and boost the gain more. If your music has any dynamics to it, you should be careful, because that's what you're sucking out. IMHO, we've become too obsessed with "loud" and alot of great elements of music (read: a sense of dynamics) have been lost because everyone and their brother wants their record to sound as loud as dookie (insert your favorite pop-rock album here).

End of rant.

Member
Since: Jul 10, 2007


Aug 06, 2007 05:36 pm

wait a minute, i didn't mean to say that dookie was my favorite pop-rock album. heh. just wanted that to be clear. Its just a good example of a record thats been squashed flat.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Aug 06, 2007 09:29 pm

What you need to do is use the Vintage Warmer on the master stereo bus to get what you want for levels. Then when you export make sure that you choose to export all the effects on the tracks and busses. That will insure that the boosted sound you are hearing gets transfered to the final wav file you are going to burn the Cd from.

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