Could someone please explain to me why it's so hard to get a master as loud as commercial masters? I realize they got more money but levels are levels right? I was trying to get a song as loud as a commercial track. I imported the song Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold and check the RMS Levels and then i worked on mine and got it really close and even higher at times. Play them both and the commercial release sounds twice as loud. I know the levels are close enough to where both tracks should be close in volume. What am i missing? I mastered it with Ozone 5.

Could someone please explain to me why it's so hard to get a master as loud as commercial masters?

Because your not mastering it correctly. Don't shoot the messenger as you ask a complex question and got the truth. No 2 songs are the same and you do different things to each song, so there is not do this or do that for this question.
 
Your mix may be lacking also. If you mixed it without the proper EQ'ing of the tracks, then you may not be able to get it loud in the mastering stage
 
Just Read up and study the art of mastering. Also look into getting a tuned room with a great signal chain and do not record and master in the same room.
 
There are books wiht thousands of pages written on htis
 
CJ

This is something I've studied for years. I've managed to attain those levels and with some authority. I have produced masters slightly hotter than the latest Rush and Foo Fighters recordings, and still get compliments on how powerful my masters are. And I did this ALL with plug-ins!!

I'll give you a good hint: Perceived Loudness is not the same thing as Energy. 

A better explanation is this: If you are unable to get the volume as loud as they can, there's obviously an important reason. To get something quite that loud requires compression and limiting. Mashing a mix into oblivion is easy. Keeping it dynamic, punchy and musical....now THAT's the mystery! If you can't get there with simple compression and limiting (in that order), you need to evaluate and research what frequencies or instruments are "killing" the compressor or limiter. Many times, I find low frequencies in guitar and kick drum as culprits. Sometimes, just a rhythm guitar or kick drum recorded with a large-diaphragm condenser will produce frequencies well below what you'd care about hearing in a final mix, Use some low-cut filters to help here. 

The next thing I figured out is, what plug-ins I could use to get a little more out of the mix in terms of volume and punch. I found a few plug-ins that help more than others, then researched and discovered exact attack and release settings that will allow maximum punch without the pumping effect being noticed too much. 

Mastering Engineers are good at these things for a reason. They know how to do it, how not to do it, and when to stop doing it. Plus, some places, such as Grundman Mastering have specially built equipment that can only be gotten by using their services. 

CJaysMusic
There are books wiht thousands of pages written on htis
 
CJ

hwat's wiht htis speeling JC?

it's the froum sotfware

Dude Ivey

Could someone please explain to me why it's so hard to get a master as loud as commercial masters? I realize they got more money but levels are levels right? I was trying to get a song as loud as a commercial track. I imported the song Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold and check the RMS Levels and then i worked on mine and got it really close and even higher at times. Play them both and the commercial release sounds twice as loud. I know the levels are close enough to where both tracks should be close in volume. What am i missing? I mastered it with Ozone 5.

One trick is to keep your track peaks (or is it peeks? <-- Cj, can you clarify spelling for me?) level. The more 'level' each track is, the louder you can push your Limiter without clipping it.


No matter what material you are mastering, you are only going to get so loud before it distorts or you start to hear artifacts of your Limiter, and what mainly causes that are the decibel spikes. 


If it's loudness you are going for, try putting Limiters on every Track to even out the levels, keep an eye on how much the Limiter is limiting ... for example, if it says -8db, then raise your Limiter Output by +8. That's a rough guide, but you get the idea.

HTH.

Bub

There's lots of great materials and recommendations out there, and each piece of advice can help. Here's one I learned from Bob Ludwig. One trick to get a little more punch in the low end is to take an EQ, drop it in somewhere in the chain (I do this after compression if the mix already has some good punch), and with a VERY tight Q, boost around 60Hz to about 5-10db. The kick drum frequency doesn't change much (if at all), so if the Q is tight enough, the bass guitar shouldn't be affected by it much. Play around with that. 

I've also found from Greg Calbi (I believe) who said that in your mastering chain, not to simply use one compressor or limiter, but maybe add a few with settings which are minimal, and with them all doing just a little bit instead of one doing a lot, you might get better results. Bub made a similar point above. Little bits at a time is sometimes better than taking one Limiter or compressor and infusing LOTS of gain. 

I have a fairly simple chain, with some good (but expensive) plug-ins, but I do have about 1 or 2 Linear-Phase EQs, one really good multi-band compressor, one really good wide-band compressor, a tape sim, and a multi-band limiter. With these tools, I can get my masters to about -5db perceived level without much sweat. If I can't get at least -6db, I need to revisit the mix.

I made two different masters of the song i refered to in the original post. The first one the percieved level about -9 and the second around -6. I blasted both in my truck on my way home from work. The first one actually sounded pretty good. The second one was obviously a Little louder but not near as good sound quality except the kick drum. The kick sounds good in both masters. The vocals sucked in the louder one, i noticed that immediately. They sounded pushed too far. So ill be back to the mix and tweak some more. But at least the first mix had some pretty good sound quality. Loud is not the most important thing to me. I just wanna get better at making a good sounding mix and a good sounding master thats loud too!
@Brian, id be interested in the brands of plugs in your mastering chain if u dont mind.
Thanks for everyones input. I,ve got two books on mixing and mastering that i been reading, i guess we'll all get there one day.

Another way to get more punch in the low end is to put an instance of TP Basslane (free) on the master bus. It centers all frequencies below a limit that you set and really helps to tighten the bottom end. I find that it's default setting (300Hz) to be very effective. I use it on every track now, I'm addicted to it!

brconflict


 
I've also found from Greg Calbi (I believe) who said that in your mastering chain, not to simply use one compressor or limiter, but maybe add a few with settings which are minimal, and with them all doing just a little bit instead of one doing a lot, you might get better results. Bub made a similar point above. Little bits at a time is sometimes better than taking one Limiter or compressor and infusing LOTS of gain.

I find it similar to painting - you get much better results form applying several thin coats than you do with a single thick coat