My mixes sound LOUD

I wish this was true if I try to get more loudness from my music I start clipping and I can here the digital distortion (for the want of a better word) I would like to know how to get past this so my songs sound more dynamic and rangey (if there is such a word).
 
 

I listened to Moon & Stars, 21, John Grey and Turn on the Beamer. Granted, YouTube isn't a good platform for judging dynamics, but I liked the mixes, the clarity of vocals and how they float above the mix, and the crisp percussion. I would not call these tunes dynamically-challenged.
 
The one common characteristic that stood out, however, was that the low bass seemed excessive. I suspect that your monitors might be weak down at the extreme low end, causing you to boost those frequencies beyond what's actually needed. Listening on headphones, it wasn't obvious. But on full-range speakers, it exceeds what I'm used to hearing on bottom-heavy reference material.
 
The problem with low frequencies is that they have to be so much higher in amplitude than everything else, just to be perceived as loud as the rest. That means any dynamics processors on your master bus will be primarily responding to them at the expense of everything else, even if you can't hear those extreme lows.
 
I'd suggest two things that might help. First, a moderately steep HPF set to start rolling off around 50 Hz, to attenuate the stuff you really don't need down in the 20-40 Hz octave. If that doesn't do it, try inserting a multi-band compressor in front of the limiter. By leveling lows, mids and highs independently, that will let you reign in the low end without sacrificing that nice and crisp percussion you've got going.
 
If you then feel you're losing the bass, look at your bass tones, especially the ones where you're apparently using an acoustic bass. Some of those tracks are so concentrated in the lows they're almost sine waves. Try an EQ boost on them somewhere in the 150-400 Hz range, which will improve their clarity and help them punch through at lower volume. If you have a plugin capable of gentle distortion, like FabFilter Saturn, you can use that to boost harmonics on the bass and make it sound louder than it really is.

Thank you for the advice so far...just to other musics it sounds like im missing somewhere but I know how technical you guys can be (picky) so again thanks for the reviews...Bitflipper good to see you and Jamesg still here. Dwardzala I will definitely look into that as I am not well versed in what elements to use first.
 
Bitflipper I am using KRK VXT6 however the bass never seems to come through with them and that is why I am struggling in that area, unless with the VXT series its about getting the tone of the bass rather than hearing the bass. I will have to look into that to see if I can make that sound right. I wonder if anyone else is using the VXT6's and wonder how they are coping with the bass element of mixing?

dappa1
Thank you for the advice so far...just to other musics it sounds like im missing somewhere but I know how technical you guys can be (picky) so again thanks for the reviews...Bitflipper good to see you and Jamesg still here. Dwardzala I will definitely look into that as I am not well versed in what elements to use first.
 
Bitflipper I am using KRK VXT6 however the bass never seems to come through with them and that is why I am struggling in that area, unless with the VXT series its about getting the tone of the bass rather than hearing the bass. I will have to look into that to see if I can make that sound right. I wonder if anyone else is using the VXT6's and wonder how they are coping with the bass element of mixing?

It's probably less about your monitors and more about your room with respect to missing the bass.  This is a clear case for reference material.  Pick a song that is "similar" to the track you're trying to mix and listen to it and try to "match" (I know not a good word) the tonal characteristics.  I.E. if the bass is low on the reference track make it low on your track too.  A spectrum analyzer can help too.
 
Also, check you mixes on other systems, (car perhaps?) to see what you really hear.

Vastman the bss on the VXT6 seems to be missing or very very flat when I fatten up the kick drum and bass it sounds a bit more round. With out Sonarworks was you able to get good bass in your mix.

the problem with mixing too loud PRE mastering,
is that in the end,
it all ends up sounding a bit 'crunchy', and unless you have stellar metering,
you have probably added a lot of clipping and near misses,
which in the long run, especially listening to more than one song in a row (like on an album), will lead to ear fatigue,
without fail,
every time.
 
 
mix you levels lower.
 
get your volume with mastering.
 

what I have been hearing (internet) is that the loudness wars are over.
It appears that any music placed on any of the streaming sites is normalized to their particular level. 
So, is an extra 2 db worth it? 
 
Granted, my view is based around my perception that CDs and any other physical media is pretty much dead.

but yes,
if sites are typically doing 'normalization', the point remains that you don't need a 'hot' master to compete with the streaming.
 
this really is more driven by professional releases that have awesome masters that sound great and are still super hot.
 
put in a playlist on somebody's personal device, those particular songs, especially in shuffle, will just kick everything elses's ass with volume,
then it boils down to how good the mastering really was.
 
there are some hot pro masters out there that are able to get a super clean but super loud refined sound,
and that kinda sets the bar pretty high.

Bob (Katz) declared the loudness wars as over.
http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/end-loudness-war
 
I came from a background (classical) where the more dynamics and rubato the better.  But I appreciate all types of music and styles.  So the key is to fit in with the particular expectations of the genre. 
 
To the OP: you can give LANDR a try for comparison, previews are free and the uploader is available from SONAR, they're constantly updating it for better detection of genres and such. 
 
Funny that you mention the volume knob, there's a science behind that and it's part of replay gain.  There are level balancing standards in place by several streaming sites in effect so if something is totally squashed it could get turned down to have a comparable volume with something that's more dynamic.  Matching on perceived loudness.  So if you push too far, the result when aired may sound worse than if it were left a little more open.  Of course it varies depending on who's using what standard to play it, etc.
 
Something personally I've seen you may find useful... There's some videos by Ian Shepherd with various tips.  What's useful is the techniques he's using to A/B things.  Some of that can be applied to any platform when you understand how to properly level match things for A/B comparisons.
It's easy to think one thing sounds better because it happens to be a few dB louder. 
https://www.youtube.com/c...MFrnWIF6N5YtOZzmCGP16A
 
Keith