How can I make the music louder and keep the good quality?

[girldairy]

I used to record at home and give it to a mixer. Now I want to export the music(one acoustic track) by myself and found its volume is very low.

I spent half of the day to try all kinds of solutions (Sonar, Audacity......)but doesn't work, the song just cracked if I turn up the volume.  Any advice?

Edited April 8, 2019 by girldairy

[Lynn Wilson]

Yes, you need to learn about mastering.  There are many articles on-line and tons of limiters and compressors on the market (many good freebies) for accomplishing this task.  You came to the right place for advice, and Google is your friend, also.  Good luck.

[S.L.I.P.]

Here's a good, free limiter:

https://d16.pl/frontier/overview

[James Argo]

If you actually love the sound of your initial recorded audio quality wise (only need to make it louder), then the easiest way to turn up the volume to the hottest level possible without being clipped / distorted is to "normalize" them. Cakewalk has built in Normalize function in menu Process --> Apply effect --> Normalize. 

[Byron Dickens]

Volume knob?

[Rico Belled]

50 minutes ago, James Argo said:

If you actually love the sound of your initial recorded audio quality wise (only need to make it louder), then the easiest way to turn up the volume to the hottest level possible without being clipped / distorted is to "normalize" them. Cakewalk has built in Normalize function in menu Process --> Apply effect --> Normalize. 

Sorry, that's terrible advice. Normalize is almost never a good option! You need to learn how to use a mastering limiter, perhaps in combination with a multiband compressor. Adding some tube/tape saturation and driving them can work... there are many ways!
 

R

[bitman]

a clipper followed by a limiter. Only shave 2db with the limiter.

I prefer kazrog k-clip v1 or v2

LOUD!!!

[CJ Jacobson]

2 hours ago, girldairy said:

I used to record at home and give it to a mixer. Now I want to export the music(one acoustic track) by myself and found its volume is very low.

I spent half of the day to try all kinds of solutions (Sonar, Audacity......)but doesn't work, the song just cracked if I turn up the volume.  Any advice?

It cracks up because you  are clipping it. You cannot exceed above 0dB in thr digital realm. You really shouldn't to go above -0.03dB to-0.06db to leave room for errors in conversions.

For mastering, you basically just need an EQ --> Compressor --- EQ (sometiems) --- Limiter, those are all you need for mastering. so just learn them inside out and train your ears to your room and wha lah!!!

[James Argo]

4 minutes ago, Rico Belled said:

Sorry, that's terrible advice. Normalize is almost never a good option! You need to learn how to use a mastering limiter, perhaps in combination with a multiband compressor. Adding some tube/tape saturation and driving them can work... there are many ways!
 

R

Well, it's not terrible advice for beginner, in fact "Normalize" is one of the first step to learn how to master. It's a basic thing anyone can do easily to turn audio clip level louder without clipping. You don't need any other tool than one Cakewalk has provided by default. It's a simple starting point. The question indicates OP didn't know much about it, and he needs advice he can try. He probably will need to learn any other tools and stuff to go further, but for a while, simple advice won't ruin his life.

[CJ Jacobson]

10 minutes ago, James Argo said:

Well, it's not terrible advice for beginner, in fact "Normalize" is one of the first step to learn how to master.

I do not agree. Normalization is a band-aid and has nothing to do with mastering. Normalization is not used as a tool for learning how to master. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by CJ Jacobson

[abacab]

iZotope Ozone Elements has a handy maximizer. If you use the "Master Assistant" it will bring the volume up automatically after it listens to your music.

Also, nothing was mentioned about the audio signal chain in the source recording. What was recorded and at what levels, what pre-amp and interface was used, etc. If the input signal level was too low when recording it, amplifying it effectively will be harder.

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by abacab

[razor7music]

If you want something easy while you work on your mastering craft, *Waves has a plugin called, OneKnob Louder. I've used it in my processing chain and it works pretty well--just like using a compressor/limiter, you have to keep from pushing it too hard or your mix will start to sound squashed, or you might get some unwanted pumping.

This should not be a substitute for learning how to make your mixes sound commercially louder, but sometimes "quick" fits the bill (as long as it sounds good!)

*(I've become less impressed with Waves plug-ins as they are notoriously and consistently the only plug ins that complain when I scan my VST's in Cakewalk)

[Gswitz]

Just to be annoying, i normalize things to different levels all the time.

Essential piece of kit imho.

Being able to normalize to rms or ebu is also handy.

[Lynn Wilson]

It's alright to normalize, but don't forget that it is destructive editing.  A good brickwall limiter is non-destructive and can be found free at the KVR site.

[Craig Anderton]

A few things about normalization...

• Normalization doesn't affect the sound or the dynamics. It's no different from turning up the level. If you plan to add limiting or compression, turning up the processor's input level, or lowering its threshold, is functionally equivalent to normalizing the input signal to a higher value.
• If you normalize to 0, you run the risk of intersample distortion due to the D/A converter's smoothing process. A signal that registers as "0" on a meter that's reading sample values could actually be creating a signal that's 3 dB over the available headroom after conversion...so there's distortion even though the meter says there isn't. True Peak meter readings take this into account.
• If you're doing an album project, ultimately it's up to your ears to decide if the levels are balanced. One way to do that is to normalize all the cuts in the album to something under 0 True Peak initially. Decide which one is softest, and reduce the levels of the other one to match it. However, that's not a particularly scientific approach, and requires a lot of trial and error to get the right balance.
• Level is less of an issue these days than it was with the CD. I recommend checking out my article What Is LUFS, and Why Should I Care? It addresses level-matching, loudness, the R128 standard, and how to deal with optimum level-setting in the post-CD era.

[Brian Walton]

7 hours ago, abacab said:

iZotope Ozone Elements has a handy maximizer. If you use the "Master Assistant" it will bring the volume up automatically after it listens to your music.

Also, nothing was mentioned about the audio signal chain in the source recording. What was recorded and at what levels, what pre-amp and interface was used, etc. If the input signal level was too low when recording it, amplifying it effectively will be harder.

 

This.  iZotope Ozone Elements is the easy answer here.  Basically no real knowledge needed and instant very good results thanks to AI learning 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Brian Walton

[Larry Jones]

+1 to @abacab and @Brian Walton. If you just want to get started fast (and have LOUD mixes), buy iZotope Ozone Elements for $129 and use it. In time you'll want to be more sophisticated in your mastering, but this plugin will get you going right away, with almost no thinking (not that there's anything wrong with thinking).

[Kev]

3 hours ago, Larry Jones said:

...If you just want to get started fast (and have LOUD mixes), buy iZotope Ozone Elements for $129 and use it. In time you'll want to be more sophisticated in your mastering, but this plugin will get you going right away...

Another alternative:
Voxengo Elephant

[chuckebaby]

This seems to be the thing people struggle with (including myself for a long time). It all starts with the recording. A good recording (sonically) will produce a good foundation. Compression and EQ should be applied to the foundation before lift off (Export). The export is then brought back in to Cakewalk and treated slightly different. Its a totally different game than trying to get a good foundation. Its about putting the roof on.

The problem with slapping a "one size fits all" limiter on your master bus during Export is your going to have issues once you start to push it.

You need to focus on the energy that's sucking up valuable frequency's. The only real way to do that is with multiband compression.

[Kurre]

So...no one cares about overtones. Interresting.

It's the overtones that makes the timbre - tone color.

Normalize increases everything. The good overtones and the bad distortion. You keep the timbre the same.

Mixing and mastering effects increases some parts and decreases other. You change the timbre.

If there's clipping you've done something wrong with the normalize. Check settings.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Kurre
Correction.