Seven tracks, one volume...?

so if i understood you have one session consisted by 7 songs?

this is one way of doing it. the other way is to mixdown each song and re-import the mixed wav again in the project. solo the new track and normalize it from the audio proccess window. then just add sonar's limiter and give a -4 db threshhold and -0.2 db ceiling. then you have to again export the mix. but you have your song  ready.

doing that to every song will maybe cost you 20 min. but you are ready to burn a cd. (don't forget to mix in 16 bit - 44100Hz, the standard cd quality)

I use the normalizing method.  Be sure the faders are up on the song before you export the wave. Then use a free wave editor like Audacity or Wavepad to normalize them. That is the easiest way to bring them all to the same approximate levels.

then they are burnable and the listener won't have to reach for the volume on each tune.

After you do the normalization... burn 1 test CD to check... all you need to do is listen to 10 to 15 seconds of each tune....long enough to hit the verses. If they are all about the same level... burn them.... if NOT, note which tunes are too low or too hot. You can use the editors to lowed by 1db at a time or raise by 1 db at a time until they are right....

repeat the process as many times as needed to get it right.

I find that the normalize one time is all that is needed on my songs....

Here is an approach that I picked up from attending a mastering session with one of Melbourne's best mastering engineers.

I assume you have 7 mixes from these songs but they are not fully mastered as yet. eg these mixes should not really contain any mastering within them.

Out of the seven tunes try and find one that you would class as a reference. It should be a track that contains the best mix so far, probably most instrumentation, biggest sound etc. This track is often easy to pick as there is usually one that stands out and you can call 'The One'

Setup a separate mastering session, import this track and master it first.  Also at this point it is not a bad idea to import a commercial well mixed and mastered track in the same style and genre as your first ref track. This will often keep you more honest and true to a well mastered result. Switch back and forth from your ref track to the commercial track to make sure you are moving in the right direction.

Once you are happy you don't need the commercial track so much but now you should have a well mastered first track and you can call this your ref track.

What you don't do is run all your tracks through the same mastering processes as you did for the ref track because they wont apply to the other tracks especially if the others are all quite different.

You need to setup each track in turn into a fresh mastering session but now make sure your mastered ref track is present sitting on another track and obviously getting no processing. As you master the others, you switch the others back and forth and compare them to your ref track. That way you may not be able to make all the others sound exactly like your ref track but at least they will all be similar. You should aim to get all your rms levels very close to each other as well and to the ref track.

Now once you have mastered all 7 of them create another session and just import all of your 7 mastered tracks one after the other and try moving them around to get the order but also check the tonalities of them as they go from one to the other. You may have to tweak the odd one after you do this as well.

Mastering is not just about making a track sound great and loud. It is also about getting a bunch of tracks to agree in sound and also its about the order. Even the time between tracks is important. Tracks that end abruptly often need a slightly longer silence to the next track. Tracks that fade don't need as much silence time between etc.

Here is an approach that I picked up from attending a mastering session with one of Melbourne's best mastering engineers.

did those mastering enginners got into details of how to master like you did? or it was about the importancy of mastering?

Jamz0r


I'm always surprised when people still suggest normalizing audio... 

Simply mix the songs to your liking, then export them all to 24bit wavs.  Then import all songs into a new project, apply a limiter to each, then adjust each song while comparing them all back and forth to each other.  This is also a good time to do some fine EQ to make sure all songs are together sonically, to remove any issues with any being boomy, mid heavy, etc.
You don't want the listener reaching for the tone/EQ knobs either!  Export to 16bit wavs, burn CD.

That's pretty much how I do it, except I use clip gain envelopes on each song. Jump back and forth between the tracks and adjust to suit.

Same as above for me :)