Track is too flat, even though i havent used any compresion?

[Tweaking Knobs]

Hi There i wanted to try landr for the fisrt time.. i just finished a track. and it says its too loud...

But the thing is.. i think the track is not too loud.. it actually has lots of headroom and I actually havent used compression either on individual channels or in the master... do you know whats the problem?


And this is how it looks in the mixer:



this is the exported audio in audacity:



and if i add a normalize just to see a bit better how it looks, looks like this:



Which actually looks way too very flat... but the thing is im not using any compression... ?

In anycase i feed landr the un-normalized wav file.. i just did the screenshot to see how it looks abit better...

Any ideas whats is making my mix so flat? even tho im not using compression or limiters ?

i think this flatness is the problem.. but how can it be so flat if there are no compressors being used ?

This is the track:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nt9q7bantlszy ... x.wav?dl=0

[Tarekith]

Could be a dense arrangement, long sustaining bass sounds, all sorts of things. Forget how it looks though, and ignore what landr says. If you’re happy with how it sounds now that’s all you need to know.

[strangedaysuk]

Compression doesn't flatten a track - arrangement and balance does. However it might be what you want? If its not rebalance it and give it more dynamics or rethink your sounds.

Mastering through something like that crap won't achieve any more than a good bedroom mixer who masters his own stuff. I'd either pay a pro, or master it myself cos I know I could do a better job if I am not sending it to someone I trust.

[antic604]

I'm very far form being a pro, but 1st thing I noticed immediately is the fact that all your meters show peak at -40 to -25dB, which seems really low, as typically people try to mix at -10 to -6db. Therefore the exported file looks so 'flat' until you normalise it. I don't know how normalisation works in Audacity, but if it proportionally increases the signal so that the loudest beat is at maximum, then maybe that's the problem?

For you, does your song sound differently before and after normalisation (other than the loudness, obviously)?

[strangedaysuk]

Sorry I didn't see the bit about normalisation - which can compress a file (although in this case it might have just changed the gain) - I would revisit your mix, as the previous poster said you have mixed it very very low - don't be afraid to do your own mastering and take it of at the end before sening it for mastering to get some ideas about where you stand.

[Tarekith]

Strangedaysuk -

Normalization doesn't compress a file, and yes compression will most definitely create a flat looking track if it's over done.