Dusk Dave

Thanks so much for the suggestions, people. I've looked at the You Lean and the MLoudnessAnalyzer and they are the kind of thing I'm looking for... If only I could figure out why they give me different results on the same track? I suppose I have to just choose one and stick with it because, for live shows, it is all relative. To be honest, even the free versions are far more sophisticated than I actually need as I am not mixing for YouTube or Spotify and 90% of what I am seeing means nothing to me. I think I can infer what I need with the peak loudness and the range. Having said that, it seems the ability to analyze an existing sound file (which will save me going through them all and adjusting, re-exporting etc... is only available on the paid versions so it looks like they got me. Thanks again DD

Hi All, I'm new here and not as smart as I think I am. I could use some help regarding Cakewalk, specifically a way to ensure my drum and bass backing tracks are exported at a consistent loudness? For example, and specifically, I want to be able to export 'regular' drum tracks for most songs at about -5dB say, but then be able to drop that to -8dB for gentler songs and maybe up it to -3dB for heavier rock songs. I've had incidents where a John Denver number has come out louder than the Foo Fighters and it just sounds incongruous. For drums, I am using MIDI data and an Addictive Drums soft synth so clearly just adjusting the velocities won't take into account any intrinsic volume dynamics of the kit AD is using. In short, I need a way to analyze the average loudness post AD but pre-export. The bass is a simple audio file but still needs the same kind of analysis and treatment. Obviously, the single, peak loudness on the level meter could be misleading for this purpose. Intuitively, I feel I need something that can average the N loudest peaks in the track to give me a benchmark to work from. I saw a video of someone using an inline LUFS meter on their DAW. Is there anything like that available? Any help will be gratefully received :) DD