Master volume red zone

[Moods in Music]

Hi Everyone, 

I have set the various volume levels so that the Master Bus is just below hitting the peak meter red zone. The Master Bus connects to the hardware Output Left + Right. However, the final audio mix is significantly lower in volume than audio from other music. One has to crank up the amplifier volume {to 11!} to compensate. Any ideas? 

Of note, when cranking the Master Bus into the red zone, there is no noticeable clipping or distortion. 

Moods in Music
www.moodsinmusic.com

Edited September 9, 2023 by Moods in Music
{to 11!}

[Lord Tim]

That other music is mastered, usually going through some various compressors and limiters on the master bus to push those levels higher.

This is worth a read: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/what-is-mastering.html

[Moods in Music]

Thanks, Lord Tim. I read the link. 

I'm using MCompressor's Master preset on the final output. It increases volume on the low side and decreases it somewhat on the high side. The RMS and Peak levels are very similar in the loudest sections, but still not very loud. The mix sounds about right, as long as you crank up the amplifier. 

Moods in Music
www.moodsinmusic.com

[Glenn Stanton]

what level did you calibrate your monitors to? this plays an important part of the monitoring and thus mastering stage. then understanding the differences between peak values and RMS (short term and integrated LUFS) will impact the perceived loudness.

some guides on this:

https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1770-4-201510-I!!PDF-E.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBU_R_128

https://youlean.co/loudness-standards-full-comparison-table/

https://transom.org/2021/the-audio-producers-guide-to-loudness/

some reading that may be useful: Mastering Pros: How Loud Should My Master Be? (izotope.com) https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/how-loud-should-my-master-be.html

 

[Lord Tim]

Yeah, mastering stuff to commercial levels is kind of a bit of a black art (although MUCH easier now due to all of the AI tools available), but to a degree it's kind of irrelevant anyway trying to blast stuff at those levels.

The loudness war is truly dead and buried. Most music services will suggest you mix FAR quieter than commercial CD mixes now and will actually turn a hot master down to suit their levels. The only reason to really crank stuff now is if you prefer how it sounds - some music really benefits from being pretty smashed so you get that "everything louder than everything else live show energy" kind of vibe to it. 

But yeah, getting things that loud is usually much more than just a single plugin. My chain usually has several different kinds of EQ, tape simulation, multiband compression, single band compression, stereo field manipulation and a mastering grade limiter on there, and sometimes even more stuff if I have to do some specific surgery on a problem mix I've been sent, that for whatever reason can't be remixed to fix those issues.

If you like the sound of it, I'd suggest maybe trying one of the online AI mastering services and see if that can add the final bump for you. But if you're just distributing to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. then you're probably honestly fairly good to go now.

[Moods in Music]

Thanks, Jim Stanton. Mastering Pros: How Loud Should My Master Be? was a good read, and I will review it again. 

Thanks, Lord Tim. Your saying that many mixes are now FAR quieter is a good point. It probably suits the piece I'm working on, which includes large dynamic ranges between sections. I may experiment with changing the parameters of the final compression/limiters for the different sections. For fun, I have attached the waveform (4 minutes, single channel).

 

Moods in Music
www.moodsinmusic.com

[John Vere]

Download the You lean loudness meter and put it after a peak limiter like the Loud Max on you master bus . I set the loud max at -1.0 db. Then the You lean meter will tell me my LUFS. I aim for -14 LUFS. Lots of info about loudness on the web. 
If your song is peaking over -1.0 db and only -16 LUFS then you need to mute busses until you find what it is that is causing the higher peaks. It could be a snare or a boomy bass. 
Also install Span and see what you frequencies look like. This might tell you where your monitors are lying to you 

Edited September 10, 2023 by JohnnyV

[Moods in Music]

Thanks, JohnnyV. 

I went back and examined each track. Turns out that the bass player was running way hot. Sounded good, though! Toned the bass down a bit, and that allowed me to increase the overall sound mixture somewhat. 

Thanks, Everyone!

 

Moods in Music
www.moodsinmusic.com

[mettelus]

+1 on the bass aspect. Lower frequencies have more power to them, so not only watching the kick/bass, but also applying HPFs to instruments to remove the unnecessary low end can give you more headroom in the mastering part. Many (most is probably accurate) limiters/saturators operate in broadband mode (across the full spectrum), so intense low end content will make it reach its limit settings first. Some limiters do have multi-band (MB) capability, but be very careful with crossover bands with these... I have noticed over the years that the lower the fidelity of the playback system, the more obvious crossover bands become (in any MB FX).