Volumes

[AcidTrash]

Trying to boost the volume of my tracks as when they come through the mixer they still have to be turned up to max on the mixer to match volumes of the decks.which are only at half volume on the slider.

Also to get my tracks to equal bass I have to give it nearly a quarter extra bass on the mixer to give me the sound I'm after. When I try doing this in the track everything overloads and I have to reduce the overall volume.

What am I missing. Compression still sounds really muddy to me and interferes with the clarity of my sounds and doesn't seem to effect the volume by much at all so I'm convinced it's something else. What could it be?

[TechMouse]

Preamp of some kind, maybe?

[AcidTrash]

whats that mean?

[neilried]

Trying to boost the volume of my tracks as when they come through the mixer they still have to be turned up to max on the mixer to match volumes of the decks.which are only at half volume on the slider.

Arnt Line levels ins and outs like decks cd player mixers etc a much louder signal than studio gear? I seem to remember hearing somewhere that was one of the reasons that using a soundcard -> DJ Mixer -> Monitor Speaker Setup (like I am :doh: ) wasnt going to give the best output...

If i line the output on my Delta 66 into my DJM600 the levels are under half that of the decks and the same happens if I plug the 303 into the DJM.

Assuming your using a DJ mixer for the decks before they get to the mixing desk cant you turn the line level output down via a seperate gain or screw on the back like the DJM has?

Just wondering if its the decks are too loud not everything else too quiet...

[Chazbloke]

i have a similar problem.
i recorded my track from the monitor outs of my mixing desk and back into the pc via the analogue in.
i turned the monitor gain up to a point where i had matched the output of the mixing desk to the same input recording level in sound forge and then normalised to 0db once recorded (no other mastering at this stage, dont know what should be done, never got this far betore ;) )
the level on the mixing desk peaked @ -1/-2db.....
i then moved the track from PC to mini-disc (digitally) and hooked up the mini-disc to my mixer at home (gemini fx7000)
played track, had to turn channel gain all the way up and all the channel eq gains past the half-way....
but, and this is the trip, when i hooked the mini-disc to a djm-600 at the party, i think i plugged it into the CD input, rather then line and i got a really nice level on the mixer (least i think that was the case, was a bit spooned!)

i'm going to check:
playing a normal track from mini-disc on the mixer
re-record tune via digital-outs
re-record tune via omni-outs

if anyone could shed some light on this, i mean should it be like this (the low levels)...??

[AcidTrash]

doing A/B comparisons with other producers stuff from BOA forum has demonstrated that my tracks are pitifully quiet yet everything is maxed as far as it will go without going into the red. WHY???? I've taken out just about everything that doesn't add to the track and yet it still sounds feeble. Somebody please put me out of my misery.

[Barely Human]

Here is a good theroy on how to place sounds in your mix without getting that muddyness and loosing headroom

http://www.dnbscene.com/articles.php?mode=display&id=79

I guess you need to have a look into subtractive EQ'ing, and also multiband compression to get your tracks to sound a lot louder.

[Basil Rush]

There's lots of different shit going on here by the sounds of it.

Firstly - relative levels of decks and studio equipment. AT - I'm guessing that the decks are going through the same mixer as the rest of the studio stuff and you aren't talking about the DJ mixer level here.

Follow some kind of process for setting up the mixer. Set all your faders to 0db (hopefully some way from full), mute them all, whilst playing your track turn the gain controls till the output meters read 0db unmuting only one track at a time.

Pull all the faders back down again.

Push the kick so it reads somewhere between -9db and -6db on the meters.

Leave it there.

Mix the rest of the stuff however you feel is best.

See how you're doing now.

Bounce the thing into the computer/DAW or whatever you use for mastering.

limit the thing a little, not a lot. (-3db drop at the loudest bits max)

If you still sound way quiet compared to other tracks then maybe you've got a subbass problem. Check this by rolling everything under 40hz off with a high pass filter then limit the thing again. If it gets loads louder then you've just got a load of subbass you probably don't want filling up the headroom.

See how you get on ...

Don't forget, most CDs and MP3s are limited way more than they should be for a nice sound. So be careful what you compare with ... you can easily get into an overcompressed nasty loudness race where just turning up the monitor volume will make it right.