• SONAR
  • Sonar X2 Prducer and Ozone5
2013/05/11 14:57:08
theokus
I am not new in music but new using in this software. Till now: nothing works here :) It's really frustrating and difficult. It's not the best thing to use "normalize" to get the best output for a number of songs I do read here and there. But HOW do I get a good result without it?? One song is too loud and the other one is too silent. Sorry but I can't help it. A whole week of work and no results.
2013/05/11 15:40:49
Chregg
cuz you're new to this, theres a good chance you'll do more damage with ozone. Can i recommed that you use the pro channel eq and 4k buss compressor. There might be some good pre sets as a starting point, and use ozone's maximiser last in the chain. As for you two tracks you have to match the rms levels. in track view/options /meter options change the buss to peak and rms. From there try and get the rms levels as close as you can using ozones limiter, as long as you dont have to push the limiter too much to get the rms levels even. Its at lot to explain to someone who is new to this, but this is the best i can do
2013/05/11 15:42:13
Chregg
or even better if you can go back into the mixes and try and get your levels for each mix close, rather than possible making things worse with a limiter.
2013/05/11 15:47:38
theokus
  Thank you! I have a number of wav files; they are ready and the are good. But as I did say; writing that cd with the correct volume settings is my problem.
2013/05/11 15:53:53
Sidroe
First of all, are you mixing or mastering? Both processes can be tormenting! There is no cut and dried approach to either process. What works for one song will not work for all. BE PATIENT! If you are not doing this for a living and you have no deadline to meet, take it in steps. I would suggest to take one song and one song only. Concentrate on learning how to use the tools you have before you. Without a clear understanding of what each plugin does it will be very hard to get a handle on how these DAWs work. Most of all, don't feel alone! A lot of us who have done this a long time still have a hard time with mixing and mastering. This forum is a very good place to start your quest for the best mix you can get. There are a lot of knowledgeable people in here who are chock full of ideas to help. I know the first thing we would want is for you to post some of your songs so we can offer our ideas about what may or may not be happening. If I were using Ozone 5 in the Master buss, I would delete it until I got closer to a mix I was happy with. Learn X2 first, then worry about learning Ozone! Ozone is very powerful and full of features. Just learning Ozone on its own is quite a feat. Get your mixes without it first, then add it for mastering. That's about all I can offer you at this time. I'm sure you will get more responses.
2013/05/11 15:55:01
Chregg
if your levels are good, id burn it to cd, but disable any normalising going on, get you tracks peaking at about -.3 dB and burn them to disk like that
2013/05/11 15:58:22
theokus
  Sidroe: I know :) I understand you are saying :) :) As I did say: I have good wav files ready to go. It' s just that one thing: getting them on the cd in the right way:)
2013/05/11 16:35:26
David
if you are looking for a simple answer, I would put all the songs  in the order you want, take 1 song a get it to the level you want using
a limiter. Then match each track at the loudest part of each song,  your limiter may have an rms read out that will get you close.   but you will have to use your ears as well. jump back and forth comparing songs adjusting as needed.   Like I say this is the simple answer :)
2013/05/11 16:43:13
gswitz
I spent a lot of time mixing where I didn't have the benefit of everything being automated. Sounds like you have too. Before I got Cakewalk, I spent a number of years mixing music using all in one solutions like the Akai DPS 12 and Tascam 2488. With both of these recorders I would make live recordings and then mix them again and again for a real-time bounce down where I was sliding faders etc. Sometimes when I listen back to those old recordings I still prefer them.

Cakewalk makes me way more efficient. I mix substantially more music in substantially less time, but sometimes the speed shows.

And sometimes, the more I listen the worse I make a tune. It really depends. Less is often more.

But I love experimenting where I have no idea what I'm doing. I have certain friends who I record and I pretty much know the FX I'll use. I know they don't love it when I apply a reverse reverb (giggle) or a reverse delay (ha ha).

I try to keep experimenting.

At this point, I definitely mix anything I care about using Sonar.
 
Frankly, it's pretty easy to level songs for a CD. Find the quietest song for the CD normalized and then lower the volume of other songs relative to that one so that the listener doesn't need to adjust the volume while they listen to the CD. You can get fancier by remixing the louder songs so they contain more dynamic range rather than just reducing the volume. When I say reducing the volume, I mean lowering the volume fader so that the tune doesn't use every available bit. If you increase the dynamic range, there can be a few loud moments in the song (less compression) but the song itself has a listening volume closer to the softer song while still using every available bit.
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