I'm not entirely sure if this is the right forum for this question, but since I'm using Sonar I thought I'd ask in this one...
 
I do all my recording, producing, mixing and mastering all in Sonar. I'm perfectly happy with my workflow and with the way the songs sound when they're finished... Except one thing.
 
When mastering, I usually keep an eye on the Master Bus level and try to make sure the music gets as close to the red as possible without actually going into the red. That's what I've always been told to do. However, if I do that, the music I export is audibly lower than music from other artists. It sounds great... But the volume would need to be raised for it to match what everyone else is doing.
 
Now if I master by ear... Without question what I perceive as "perfect" is going to be in the red. It will sound perfect, no actual clipping or distortion... But it's in the red. So then I go look at the level again, see it's red, bring it down a tad to get in "right" and then again, it's lower than everything else.
 
I guess my question is... Is this normal? Should I be getting the level basically perfect and then just raising it a little. Or is it possible that I need to calibrate what decibel those levels hit red at or something? Is that what everyone else does? I was at a film festival this weekend where one of my music videos played. It sounded, again, "perfect" (I keep putting it in quotes because what is perfect, really?), but clearly a few notches lower in volume than everything that played before and after it.
 
Would appreciate any thoughts/ideas/opinions.
 
Thanks

When you talk about levels going "into the red", that is typically the peak levels. But the peak levels are only part of the story - the average levels are a better indication of the perceived loudness. Imagine a snare hit on the 2nd and 4th beats - for the millisecond that snare is being hit, the levels may peak in the red area, but for most of the rest of the measure, the sound is significantly quieter.
 
(Also, into the red is actually fine as long as it never exceeds 0dBFS (or to be safer, -0.1 dBFS).)
 
The difference between these short-lived loudest points and the average level is basically what people talk about when they mention dynamic range. And to get your songs sounding louder, you need to be reducing the dynamic range, bringing the average level up closer to the peak level. This is what limiters, compressors, and clippers do, typically by making the loudest bits peak at lower values, allowing you to turn everything up without clipping.
 
Apply compression and limiting too excessively, and you will damage the sonic quality of your track. That's what people object to when they talk about the 'loudness war'. Fail to do any of this, and your song will be too quiet compared to that from other artists - and that's because they have been using compression and limiting when you have not.
 
It would take too long for me to try and give you detailed advice on how to properly use compressors/limiters/clippers on your music, but you might want to try using some of the compressor or limiter plugins bundled with Sonar on your master bus and set them to presets that are designed to work on the master. Ideally you set them up with the output gain reduced at first, so that when you compare the mix with the plugin on, it's roughly the same loudness as with the plugin off, except that when the plugin is on, the mix will peak at lower values. You do this to check that you're not making the audio quality worse when buying yourself this extra headroom. But once you're satisfied with it, you can turn up the output gain and make your mix louder, without clipping.

Going into the red is not so awful.  Its clipping that is bad.  

Thanks both of you. Yea I don't claim to know everything about it, I'm still learning (and I'm sure I'll always be haha), but yea it sounds like those average levels are what I need to pay more attention to rather than just the peak levels (which is what I was told... and you're absolutely right, I always thought it didn't fully make sense considering the snares and various other high sounds are always gonna be so much louder than everything else).
 
So yea I'm gonna start looking into that and if I have further questions I'll be back. I'm gonna try to start adjusting what I do starting with the next track I finish up and see what happens.

Tracks can clip a little, but busses cannot ever. Going in the red area is perfectly fine. As long as there is a limiter at the end of the signal chain (like the concrete limiter or boost11) then your master bus cannot clip. Use the meters and your ears and yes, import a commercial release to compare A to B. The concrete limiter module is better if you have it. So many good plugs out there. ..

polarbear
the music I export is audibly lower than music from other artists. It sounds great... But the volume would need to be raised for it to match what everyone else is doing.

Kylotan's post is spot-on, but I don't want what you said above (that I put in Italics) to get lost. Yes, dynamics DO sound great, and are an important part of the emotional impact of music. It's unfortunate that compressors and limiters have been used to create ever-louder masters, because dynamics have been lost in the process. Overly-limited music is also more fatiguing to the ear.
 
I do a lot of mastering, and I've put much effort into trying to come up with techniques that sound almost as loud as "the other guys," but retain dynamics. Generally when given a choice between a "slammed" master and one that breathes a little more, artists will take the one with more dynamics. I think listeners would too, but often they're not given the choice.
 
I don't want this to sound like a retread of the whole loudness wars debate, which has been done to death. I just wanted to underscore your observation that music with dynamics sounds great 

Oh I totally agree and that's why I've shied away from it in the past, but obviously I need to find a good middle ground. Because I'm very happy with the overall dynamics... To be honest if I could just go back through and raise the volume on every song I master, It would be good to go haha. I think my confusion came in in the advice I was given early on in my career to watch the levels on the peak meter and make sure it's not going red in there. Because if I don't use that as the be-all-end-all guide, I can make my music sound exactly how I want to AND with no distortion or problems... But I'm all worried about that peak meter, which clearly is not the full story.
 
Thanks everyone. I'm hoping to try messing with my practice later this week when I export this one song and I'll see how it goes.

I totally with Craig too. If people have read me in the past they know I support an ending of the loudness wars.One reason I think people like vinyl.

Anytime I'm going into red, I use a Waves L3-16 limiter enforcing priority for the kick, in most cases, and use a release time of about .19-.25 seconds. You can drive the signal pretty hard without clipping. But I recommend not using a single plug-in to drive the volume, use plug-ins that will judiciously do this and in their own respective ways. This will reduce the audible artifacts.
 
For example, I use the L3-16 above last in my chain, but I may use the API 2500 or PuigChild 560 for compression.
I may also make a few Linear-Phase EQ tweaks using DMG's Equality (and hopefully Algorithmix will update their expensive plugs soon to 64-Bit). Then I may drop in Tape Saturation, which usually can gain me another 3db.
 
At the end of my chain, I can get a Blasting Room sort of Master between -5 and -6 db without compromising the dynamics too terribly. This is for most loud bands, though. I'd never do this with an Americana or Jazz band.
 
I should add, go get the Brainworx loudness meter. It's VERY handy in determining (visually) loudness vs. dynamics. Well worth the money, and updated beyond Algorithmix's DR meter.

John
I totally with Craig too. If people have read me in the past they know I support an ending of the loudness wars.One reason I think people like vinyl.

Good point. Vinyl (and to a lesser extent tape) technology imposed a limit on the way the recorded music was handled. The "mastering engineer" came out of the vinyl age. He was the guy who was supposed to tweak the recording to be loud enough to get a good signal to noise ratio while at the same time avoiding having the stylus that was cutting a groove in the lacquer master from being driven into the next groove by the force of the loudest parts.
 
We have technology now that allows for a phenomenal dynamic range without causing major distortion or ruining the master, and we seem to have evolved a fashion of using only the top end.