mikesena wrote:Hi,
I'm really hoping this isn't too simple of a question, or too complex to be answered.
I'm making electro songs; elements of house, dance and hard trance. When I generate / export the song as a WAV, its really quiet compared to other dance songs. I've been working with Ableton for a couple of months now, and have been getting better at using my EQs to leave room for the kick, additional headroom for the melody by lowing certain frequencies etc. but, I want to generate a track at normal, 'standard' volumes, but how it just seems to boom if I request it to generate. However, if I'm listening through my speakers or headphones at an appropriate volume / one I'd like, it sounds great.
My master, to avoid things going red, is about 2/3 of the way down, but I can kinda boost that to the standard line when exporting. Also, I'm exporting as a WAV, normalisation on, high bit-rates/low doesn't seem to make a difference.
Any tips, areas I can look at?
Cheers,
Michael
In short, your question is quite complex. Ableton has nothing to do with having quiet tracks. It's how you are mixing them.
Are you using parallel compression? Are you side-chaining the bass and the kick?
Where are your MIDI/audio channels peaking?
There is an infinite amount of ways to mix.
I prefer to mix with my loudest channel level (Usually kick by itself or as a full drum loop) hitting at -6dBfs and no higher!
Keep your channel levels low. Get your mix balance based off the kick. To compensate for the quietness at this stage, just turn your speakers up.
Once you've got a good mix balance, apply your EQ adjustments and compression to whatever channels may need it. EQ'ing and compression take A LOT of practice and good ears. You have to understand how and why you are altering sounds. Re-adjust your mix balance as needed.
At this time, your master channel should be hitting no higher than -3dBfs at any time. If it is, you need to apply a bit of compression to the master channel to control the dynamic range so that it peaks no higher than -3. I'll explain why in a minute.
If your compressor on your master channel is squashing your signal by more than 7-10dBs, you need to re-adjust the levels of your other channels so that it's only squashing about 3-5dBs to maintain that -3dBfs peak on the master channel. The reason why is you don't want your compressor completely squashing your whole track so much at this point. Otherwise all your sounds are going to come out sounding really flat.
Now you are ready to make your track loud.
First understand that this process is a part of mastering, which is a whole other beast to mixing. This really is best left to somebody with trained ears and a well-tuned listening environment.
If you don't have the Waves L2 Ultra Maximizer like I do, use your best quality compressor/limiter that has an RMS compression function (not peak).
DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT use Ableton's compressor for this. I love Ableton, but it's compressor sounds just terrible. Use a good plugin. I strongly recommend the L2.
On the limiter, where you set the threshold that starts to squash the signal is up to you. I normally set it at -.3dBfs or somewhere around there. I like to be close to 0, but still allow a tiny bit of room in case the signal peaks above. Whatever you do, don't allow your signal to go over 0dBfs. On a digital system, this results in nothing but harsh distortion.
On the compressor side (left side of the L2), start to lower the threshold and you'll begin to hear your track get louder. How loud you want to make it is a matter of your own taste. Generally, you can keep lowering the threshold until your limiter starts catching some of the peaks. If it's only catching a peak here and there, it's probably good where it's at, however, if your limiter is showing a consistent gain reduction with no let-up, raise the compressor's threshold until the limiter is only catching a peak here and there.
If you've done this all correctly, you should have a much louder track that is comparable with some of the commercially released tracks.
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