Exported Volume Very Low

[justinpbrown71]

I have just returned to using Cakewalk and am reacquainting myself with what I used to know. My experience level is low.

I have an issue with the playback volume of songs being very low after export, perhaps about 50%.

In CW the levels seem to be fine, with the meters set to monitor RMS & Peak, and the headphone level set at 50% in Windows.

Export settings I have tried are with Entire Mix through the master bus or the headphones as source.

[John Vere]

All volume settings need to be at unity if that is the source for your export. I have tutorials on exporting and mastering projects that will clarify what you are trying to do. 
 

#15, 22, 24 and 28,29. 
 

 

[justinpbrown71]

19 hours ago, John Vere said:

All volume settings need to be at unity if that is the source for your export. I have tutorials on exporting and mastering projects that will clarify what you are trying to do. 
 

#15, 22, 24 and 28,29. 
 

 

Thanks very much for the tutorial links, John. You have provided links to 6 videos covering mixing, mastering and exporting, over 45 minutes. Where amongst this information is the solution to my issue?

Is the tutorial information available as text? I find it very difficult to absorb information from videos, and have to keep replaying them over and over and eventually converting them into document format, otherwise I forget the information.

"All volume settings need to be at unity if that is the source for your export." - How can unity be the source of export? I don't understand this statement.

I have made many recordings in the past using CW, but not for a long time. This is the first time I have had this issue, so I expect there is a setting/s I have applied incorrectly, or not at all.

Many thanks.

[I have watched the two videos about exporting, and am already exporting in the manner explained. There is no troubleshooting covered in the videos. I have also imported an exported song back into CW and it plays back at a good volume. So, I don't know why I have to push VLC to maximum volume and increase the headphones from 50% top 100% volume and still not get the exported song to play back at an equivalent volume level.]

Edited July 22, 2022 by justinpbrown71

[Starship Krupa]

Not to worry, Justin, this issue comes up often and is one that I struggled with for a while.

By default, Cakewalk takes the export from whatever hardware outputs you have enabled in its settings. That's what "entire mix" means in Caketalk.

So what this means in effect is that you can have a nice, hot level at the Master bus, but if you have your Cakewalk "Hardware outs" set at 50%, your exported mix will be at only half the level as you're metering.

What to do? Well, you can crank your hardware output sliders up to zero, but depending on your setup, that can be hard on the speakers, headphones, or ears. Also, if you have two sets of hardware outs, let's say for headphones and monitors, all of what's coming from those outputs during playback goes to your exported file.

What I do is just create an extra bus called Export and route my Master bus to that, then route the Export bus to the Hardware outs. That lets me still be able to control playback volume with the Hardware out sliders without interfering with my export levels. Then in the Export dialog, I choose to export my mix only from that bus. This Export bus also has my preferred loudness meter plug-in on it.

This may seem like an extra, unnecessary step, and it probably is for some, but it's what finally let me get all the level I wanted in my Cakewalk exports.

[John Vere]

FYI my videos are short and to the point. I don’t even have intros and I don’t beg for subscriptions. That would waist  time. People just need the facts. I made them per topic.

If you do watch the ones I listed you will be miles ahead in understanding how to produce a top quality master. There’s much more to understand about Mastering  than what I cover, but for most new comers this is a great starting point.  I can totally understand not wanting to waist time on yet more videos but mine are different. I only made them because I got tired of typing the same answers over and over in this forum  

So the sort answer is it seems you have not set your Master bus section up properly.  Only the Master needs to be at Unity.  It's all about understanding Cakewalks signal flow. All this is covered in detail in the ones you didn't watch. The Video's about Exporting is NOT about mastering. It assumes you've got that under control. 

You shouldn't be messing with Windows volume setting either, unless you don't have an audio interface.  We normally adjust monitoring levels with Hardware. You also might benefit from Tutorial # 1 about setting up your audio system correctly. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by John Vere

[justinpbrown71]

On 7/22/2022 at 4:59 PM, Cactus Music said:

FYI my videos are short and to the point. I don’t even have intros and I don’t beg for subscriptions. That would waist  time. People just need the facts. I made them per topic.

If you do watch the ones I listed you will be miles ahead in understanding how to produce a top quality master. There’s much more to understand about Mastering  than what I cover, but for most new comers this is a great starting point.  I can totally understand not wanting to waist time on yet more videos but mine are different. I only made them because I got tired of typing the same answers over and over in this forum  

So the sort answer is it seems you have not set your Master bus section up properly.  Only the Master needs to be at Unity.  It's all about understanding Cakewalks signal flow. All this is covered in detail in the ones you didn't watch. The Video's about Exporting is NOT about mastering. It assumes you've got that under control. 

You shouldn't be messing with Windows volume setting either, unless you don't have an audio interface.  We normally adjust monitoring levels with Hardware. You also might benefit from Tutorial # 1 about setting up your audio system correctly. 

I've just got back to my musical project and wanted to thank you for the video suggestions, and indeed, the videos themselves.

Please don't take me the wrong way, I do appreciate that you've given your time and expertise into creating the comprehensive set of videos. I have definitely learned much from watching them. My initial remarks were merely expressing that I find it much easier to learn from reading text than watching videos. It's just a personal thing.

Anyway, you have my gratitude for your assistance.

[John Vere]

Thanks for your positive feedback I’m glad it worked.
I guess in the Sonar days we had books about using Sonar and magazine articles etc. Now everything is a video.

I do think Scott R Garrigus is still writing articles I see him posting on Facebook Cakewalk pages 

I write all my tutorials out as documents first as I research topics. I should clean those up and post them for people to read. I find I babble and waste time if I don’t read a script. 

[Raven]

Pls how many GB is cakewalk by bandlab?

 

[Glenn Stanton]

one of the key things to check - are all devices which you listen to "calibrated" to produce the same levels? using (say a -12db pink noise file) you can set all your listening devices/sources to the same level (esp if you have a sound level meter). so if CW is set up so speakers are outputting 75db, then your listening apps needs to be set with the same source file to 75db. 

[Byron Dickens]

12 minutes ago, Raven said:

Pls how many GB is cakewalk by bandlab?

 

Please start your own thread instead of hijacking this one.