Looking for advice on converting to WAVE file

I have a song that I thought I had a pretty good mix in the studio......converted it to a Wave file and played it back through my system and I noticed it was low in the volume. During the file convert I had the main levels too low so I deleted and re converted the song at a higher volume. Should I just set the main output to 0 db to get max volume when converting?

Also, once burnt to a cd, it was a whole new mix on my car stereo. Highs were too high......vocals were thinner. Should I do a "save as" and remix to compensate for the fidelity difference in the vehicle? It almost sounded squashed. All that time spent on mixing in my studio just to have it lacking on a real environment stereo. Advice please. This has been something I've been dealing with for a long time and I need to get to the bottom of this once and fore all. Thank you! Ken

So it is possible to get a mix that would sound equally impressive on both studio and "in the car" systems. Hmmmm, back to the drawing board I guess. I mean mixing board.

Monitors are paramount. But no matter which you end up with one need to "learn " them. I think a lot of monitors are way to bass heavy and therefore people under mix the bass. These bass heavy monitors appeal to people mixing modern electronic music with lots of sub bass going on etc. But I personally could not live with that. I have a sub hooked up I kick in for clients who are worried about bass.. they all of a sudden see it's plenty loud enough. 
 
I think I got to the point were all my mixes translate to the real world every time very quickly because I chose the NSM 10's 25 years ago. They are certainly one of the best for that reason alone. It's why they are still on a lot of meter bridges around the world. The new version HS80M will be what I would certainly choose if I was in the market. 
 
Once you finally get a mix that works on all systems, Listen to it on your monitors carefully and remember that sound,,where is the bass, the kick the piano the vocals, how much reverb are you hearing .. then every mix will work too. 
 
I used to have a cheap getto blaster wired to my console to A/B mixes through. I stopped bothering once I learned to trust my monitors. 
 
The room is important, you certainly shouldn't mix in the wrong room, but myself I have had my studio in dozens of different locations and each space was totally different. But my monitors remained the same. I'm sitting less than 3 feet away from the monitors so for me the room has never interfered with what I'm hearing,, I think I tune the room out.. I always make sure the room is optimized as best as I can. Mostly a bit dead. I have so much gear around so that is my sound baffles :? 

My monitors are KRK 6's with a KRK 10" sub for a slight bass enhancement. I don't go heavy on the sub so I don't rattle the family. The bottom end on my cd was not bad.. The highs were hissy and there wasn't as much width in the overall mix compared to the board mix.

Sounds like you have a good setup. As I said...If your in a spare un-treated room I highly suggest you read up on ARC2. It helps with every possible problem that has been mentioned in this thread. I have nothing at stake here...just trying to help. It has been the best $150 (I got it on sell) I've ever spent. If you have the budget and a dedicated space, by all means sound treatment is the way to go.

Room pic

keneds
Room pic

 
Whoa! One speaker in a corner, one against the wall...that's a big problem right there. A speaker in a corner will boost bass significantly because ANYTHING radiated from the back, being a long wavelength, will bounce off the wall and reinforce what's coming off the front. The left side speaker with its back to the will have a similar problem but to a lesser degree. So right off the bat, you likely have too much bass, and your left and right channels are not symmetrical.
 
If you move your mixing table to the left several feet so it's more in the middle of the room, and move the speakers at least a foot (preferably more) away from the wall, you'll be in better shape.
 
I don't have a permanent studio yet since I relocated, but the mixing "deck" with the monitors etc. is about a third of the way toward the middle of the room, titled at a slight angle so the sound waves hit the wall at a slight angle; the speakers are in about 5 ft from the wall. If I don't turn them up too loud, there's not a lot of reflections. People who listen to what I've posted on my YouTube channel tell me the mixes translate well over just about anything, which of course is my primary goal. 
 
The ARC system is, IMHO, the best of the artificial room correction devices. But like any kind of correction, it is most effective in situations that don't need huge amounts of correction. Take care of the basics first, like speaker placement as noted above, deadening the wall behind the speakers, putting a cloud above you, and bass traps in the corners. That will make a huge difference. Then get a set of accurate (not sexy) headphones, like the KRK KNS-8400, and learn them so you have an alternate reality check.
 
If there is a good mastering suite within driving distance, tell them you want to book half an hour to listen to your music over a really good system. They might even let you do it for free so they can pitch you on mastering your stuff  Take note of how the music sounds different on your system compared to theirs so you have an idea of how you'll need to compensate in the future.
 
I worked with a mastering engineer in Nashville named Randy Kling, he had these $10,000 speakers that were off the hook. I brought in a CD for mastering and knew I was doing okay when it sounded like it did in my studio in terms of overall accuracy, other than a deficiency below 40 Hz that showed up with orchestral bass drums. Of course, his sounded a lot sweeter! But whether a speaker sounds "good" or not is not as important as whether it is accurate.

Yes. Mr. Anderton's (and your) advice has my wheels turning. I'm putting together a little floor plan to post for some suggestions on room treatment suggestions, such as base trap placement or the foam block stuff. As well as scheming my next purchase of the ARC2 system.

Just an anecdote to reinforce what Anderton said.

I've got a reasonably sized home studio (24' x 15' x 10'), and I've just put up a lot of rigid fiberglass panels in frames holding them about 2" from the wall, which improved things a lot with respect to ring and reverb. I had planned to put in even more of these, but I thought I would listen to some low frequency sound waves in Sound Forge to see whether I should go to the trouble of building some real bass traps.

Wow. Even though I'd read about it, I was not prepared for the result. Walking around the room with a 60 Hz tone playing, I found some large spots where you could barely hear the tone at all, and just as many where it was sickeningly loud. Sitting in my usual monitoring spot, I could hear the 60 Hz tone just fine, but if I lifted my head six to eight inches it practically disappeared!

Other frequencies behaved similarly, but of course the cancellations and reinforcements were at different places in the room. It's hard to see how I could mix anything in this room.

I'm going today to get some material for deep bass traps, and I plan to put up 16 2' x 4' panels. I hope that does it.

Anyone who's interested might check out ethanwiner.com.

I believe you'd want to be in the center of the shortest wall, If that's not an option the center of any wall would be best. I'll shutup now and let the guys who really know there stuff help you. Later if you need help with ARC2 (if you go that route) let me know...I have a lot of good advice saved here I can send you.

DrFrederico
I mix to Sony Sound Forge. If I want it louder, I just raise the volume a few db in Sound Forge, after the wav is completed. I haven't noticed any additional noise. I believe I paid 50 bucks for sound forge.

Well, lifting the volume slider is not the way to make a project louder, actually, in the sense of taking it to "close-to-commercial" loudness. Noise is never a problem in digital recording anymore. And you don't need Sound Forge to lift the volume a few dB, you can as well do it in SONAR.

I was wondering.....after mixing and converting to a wave file. Can I convert that file so I can move it into iTunes? Is there a program for that? That way I can put the song on my iPhone and check out the mix elsewhere.

keneds
I was wondering.....after mixing and converting to a wave file. Can I convert that file so I can move it into iTunes? Is there a program for that? That way I can put the song on my iPhone and check out the mix elsewhere.

You can convert WAV files to MP3 in iTunes. I wrote an article about it for Harmony Central. It's based on a somewhat older version of iTunes but I'm sure you can figure it out.

You can convert WAV files to MP3 in iTunes. I wrote an article about it for Harmony Central. It's based on a somewhat older version of iTunes but I'm sure you can figure it out.

Wow, you are full of information. Thank you again.

clintmartin
I believe you'd want to be in the center of the shortest wall, If that's not an option the center of any wall would be best. I'll shutup now and let the guys who really know there stuff help you. Later if you need help with ARC2 (if you go that route) let me know...I have a lot of good advice saved here I can send you.

Hi, Clint, I'm very interested in your ARC2 tips, if you have the time...  I'm learning a lot from this thread!  Thanks!