Alan-Russell
I have completed 6 audio tracks happily mixed to my liking. I noticed that I have to put the mastering slider all the way up to acheive a higher volume prior to creating an mp3. That mp3 requires a high volume setting in my bmw to review. Can I acheive any higher output prior to creating the mp3? Is there a mastering plug-in I can use in my Sonar Platinum Life Time Software? What am I missing? Tia folks.
Alan Russell
OK , this may be more than you want to know ..yet if you try it , it may help you
mp 3 ? = great for listening to your song away from the project , hopefully with fresh ears and a little detachment from the song to be able to listen for possible improvements ....
mp3 can also = the first and last step of deciding how to release your song only because it is a common format on social media ...
Having said that here's what I would suggest to you for two possible workflow options ....
Option 1 , the lazy @$$ way of doing things .....
Open up your SONAR project ...the one you are happy with the mix .
Hit d on your project on your computers keyboard to bring up the console view ...
In each and every one of your tracks you should see a gain trim pot right above over your Pro Channel ...
Keep your master set at zero , hit play and use your gain trim pots from each tracks individual trim pot to bring up your overall volume for you mp3 export .....
Option 2 ,
IMHO , a much better way of doing things ...
On this one , everything revolves around being happy with the Mix
Open up your SONAR project ...give it a few last critical listens too be sure your happy with your Mix ....
Having done so don't bother wasting your time exporting your Mix as an mp3
Export that Bad Boy at the highest bit rate you can export it at with out the dither option checked .....
Next,
Create a brand new project in SONAR ...at this point you may decide to even try out one of SONAR's included Mastering Templates .....whether you do or don't at this time is a matter of personal choice ...
For what we are talking about here , it's not a must do , but I would urge you to consider going there at some point when you feel like diving deeper into the tools you already have in SONAR .....
Now that you have a brand new blank project of SONAR ...set the tempo of the project to your song that you just exported ....
Import your higher quality mix into your new project ...Now you can open the door wide open if you decide too ..
At this stage there are a lot of things you can do ..
example 's .... you can use SONAR as an audio editor , maybe theres a fade you want to put in there ...or suppose you want to add an extra chorus or delete a few bars of the song ...this environment is a safe place to experiment in ....
Let's say you don't care about any of that ..all you want is a Killer mp3 ...your now in the right place ... to do so
Here's where you have simple choices to make based on this ...
Your Main mix is safe and you cant screw it up ...your working with much better sample rates to export to mp3 ...
You can now sweeten up you mix and bring it up to a much higher level safely because now you are entering the mastering stage VIA the little m for mastering ....
Between the Pro Channel you have on your imported mix and the Pro Channel you have on you Master you have countless options of sweetening up your project and setting it up for an mp 3 export ...
An audio trick a lot of people use it to have a reference mix of a hit tune or a tune a person feels closely represents the sonic bulls eye of what they would like their song to hold its own up against ....
that may or not be something you may choose to do at this point ....
Having done all this , while hopefully adding a little tweak here and there , I fell pretty confident that once you export to an mp3 from SONAR this way , this new mp3 is gonna kick the living $hit out of the other mp3 you made before sound wise ...
all the best ,
Kenny
post edited by kennywtelejazz - 2016/08/23 05:34:51