Getting it LOUD : theory of the human hearing range

[peter_heard01]

Hi Chaps,

I am learning to get my mixes loud I am just struggling with some theory which I feel is critical.

So, as I understand it our ears are most sensitive to noise in the range 1khz - 3.5khz.

So in order to get the 'percieved' volume level up do I need to turn this range UP or DOWN?

And then if I add compression how does this affect the above?

Fanx,
Pete

[chrissobo13]

Well compression would decrease the amplitude of the peaks in your audio, above a certain threshold. But as to your question of whether or not you should turn up or down the higher frequencies, that's up to personal taste to a certain extent. In my opinion, it should already sound good, mix-wise, before you add compression. I should have warned that I'm still not very proficient with dynamics processing, but I've definitely learned when its too much. My suggestion is to add small amounts of compression to tracks where there's a lot of dynamic range. Leave a lot of headroom, then add a limiter to the master track, and turn up the gain until you see it limit the loudest peaks. It won't ever be as loud as all the big room EDM out there, but it'll be more tasteful. If its not loud enough for your taste, turn up your monitors!

(experts can hop in any time)

[Tarekith]

Overall it's usually the low end that has more to do with how loud or quiet a track can be made in mastering, as that's where all the peak energy is. You might need to reduce the midrange frequencies if it gets too harsh when you boost the volume, but I don't think just focusing your efforts there will make things neccesarily sound louder or not.

[peter_heard01]

Overall it's usually the low end that has more to do with how loud or quiet a track can be made in mastering, as that's where all the peak energy is. You might need to reduce the midrange frequencies if it gets too harsh when you boost the volume, but I don't think just focusing your efforts there will make things neccesarily sound louder or not.

Hi Tarakith, Sorry I am confused. Are you saying that if there is more low end energy then you will be able to make a track louder at the mixdown/mastering stage? If so why does this happen? If all the RMS is being blown on ranges we are less able to hear then how does this result in a louder mix?

[Tarekith]

No, I'm saying the opposite, that it's the level of the low end that determines overall loudness usually. Too much, and there's no room to boost the track without distortion. If you want to target a frequency range in order to get more loudness, it's the low end and not the midrange that you usually have to pay attention to.

[fishmonkey]

because we are much less sensitive to bass frequencies, bass takes up a disproportionate amount of the available signal, especially in a bass heavy track. therefore you want to make sure that the bass is doing its job with minimum signal wastage. it's one of the reasons why it is common to high pass tracks that don't contain useful bass energy. btw, it's hard to correctly judge your bass levels if your monitoring system doesn't have a good low-end response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher% ... son_curves


this article covers a lot of useful bass-related techniques:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep12/a ... g-bass.htm