Consistency of Volume in the whole CD- help!!!

 Hello,  if there is already a post for this please redirect me. How can I get a consistency of volume on all the tracks of my cd? I don’t think that normalizing is the answer. A commercial CD has songs of different style and sounds , and even if you go from a “loud rock song” to the next track that is a “soft balad” you don’t feel a DROP IN VOLUME.

I have been mastering with Ozone 4, please help. Thanks!

this is why you hire a pro to master your serious projects.

I use pretty much the same method as Herb, although I've never used Ozone. Once all my tunes are mixed and exported as stereo WAV's, I open a new Sonar project, put them all in order on one track, get the gaps or cross fades right, then use clip gain envelopes to adjust relative volumes.

Then I put markers at the start of each tune, bounce the whole thing to one clip, and split at the marker points, so I can use 'no gap between songs' when burning to CD - the gaps are already there.

Once that's done, I start my rudimentary 'mastering', using multiband compression, eq, etc.

The point from those above is that every song must be "pre-mastered" to relatively equal volumes before they are imported into the final cd authoring software. The less you do in the "master" stage, the better. Get each song mixed to as close to perfect in volume and eq as possible in their individual state, and then the master process is what it should be in the digital age....minimal.

Later
Albert

Does Sonar 8 have a UV meter? any free ones out there that work?

estebanworld


What's the K system???

http://www.wikirecording.org/K_System

Does Sonar 8 have a UV meter? any free ones out there that work?

That's 'VU', unless you're measuring radiation..

 
I am NOT a Pro so what I have to say is very much just an opinion. I have had the same problem and the last CD I recorded of instrumentals (mine) had the same problem and was all over the map with levels. (Long before I had this new Sonar 8.5.3 and all the new gear i'm learning to use).
If you look for the posts by Jeff Evans regarding the K system i think he pinpoints the issues that lead to final frenzy for mastering. I firmly believe that getting it right on the initial take is at least 80 - 90 % of the issue!
I just bought the book "Mastering Audio" by Bob Katz and believe it documents the K system as it was initially HIS idea and system. If you look at the credits for Bob Katz, you will see that he is a guru of audiophile. No reason to think he doesn't know what he is talking about. certainly worth a $50 bill.
You won't get the answers immediately but the answers you DO get will last you a lifetime.
 
Sandy
 
 

mike_mccue


Two things:

1) Determine how you want the songs perceived. Do you really want them all at the same average volume or do you want some to be more loud or quite?

2) Listen and measure while making notes with regards to the relative levels along your playlist.

Right Arm! ...er On!  Never claimed to know much and learned a lot from listening over the years. Seems to me... that same principle works wonders when mixing/mastering music. The tech stuff and techniques... I got it... that only comes with time and error ...er practice, and the net and forums are full of ideas. All that being said, Mike split the log there. I've read a lot about SPLs and such, but it seems the tale always ends with perceived 'loudness'. A simple guitar/vocal ballad can 'sound' just as loud as any driving rock piece without near the same db level. (by my perception anyway) I think without training the ears to hear or perceive the same average volume amongst the songs the meters will do little more than show volume without reasoning. That may be a simpleton form of achieving an end but with a reference song I am able to achieve a balanced mix amongst our songs.

I use the K-metering on the UAD Precision Limiter. 

PSP's VintageMeter is a VU meter (also free).  It can be set up to be a K-14 meter by adjusting the controls on the back panel in this way: VU integr. time 600ms, the 0VU refer. level -14.0dBFS, the meter display left clicked to show -40 to +6.    

guitartrek makes a good point.  And the reason why using a K system approach is so good is because it starts at track level. When you are tracking, getting levels right can be difficult, but if you use say a K -14 ref level then it is a simple matter to get the VU's to just peak to 0db while the signal is present. Not hard to do.

Next is mix level and if you stay at K -14 and you generate a series of mixes for an album, they will all be at K -14 which is also handy and makes the mastering much easier. So all the mixes will just hit 0 db on the VU's. (If I am mastering someone else's album and the mixes do vary, I firstly get them all to a K level to start)

I think you need to tweak track levels within an album someimtes. I just finished mastering a CD and there was a solo piano track out of 6 tracks in all. Even through the piano was hitting 0 db in the VU's I found it slightly quiet in the car while not paying attention much. (it was quite uncompressed as well, ie very natural dynamics) So I needed to pull the piano track up +1.5 db (and add some slight compression) and it was perfect then compared to the others. Another very compressed track also gave the right VU reading but needed to come down by about - 1.5 db and then all 6 were just great to listen to right through.

jsaras watch out adapting meters to read K levels that are not meant to do it. I have tried and failed at this. The 600 ms time constant is also a trap. A real VU meter has a 300 ms time constant. A slower time constant means it is moving slower and the average rms reading will be low compared to a 300 ms true time constant. Actually the Blue Cat defaults to 700 ms for some reason and I have to keep putting it back to 300 ms. The ballistics change closer to 300 ms and look similar to a real VU. But I still find the ballistics of the plugins, even though they might be proper K system ones and showing rms at 300 ms are not exactly the same as a mechanical meter (yet!)

One school of thought about CD mastering says that ballads don't need to be at the same volume as up tunes. You can however set the vocal (or instrumental lead) level to be consistant song to song, and let the backing tracks fall where they may. How dominant the vocal is in the mix can vary greatly between ballads and fast songs. Sometimes a gap that's longer from the default 2 seconds between songs can also prepare the listener to hear the quieter ballad after a louder up-tempo song. Alternatively, an immediate segways to the next track (no gap) can be an effective contrast.