Rendered/Exported levels differ from in DAW levels

[scot]

I added midi drum tracks to recorded analog instruments. The levels in the DAW were adjusted to my satisfaction but when the file was exported/rendered the midi drums were 2-3 Db louder in the exported file. To get the desired mix I reduced the drum tracks in the daw to non optimum levels to get the exported file to have correct levels. Anyone else noticing a level difference between in DAW and exported levels?

[Glenn Stanton]

there are a few possible explanations:

1) your monitoring - depending on the levels and software you're using on playback could result in different EQ / room response which changes your perception. good idea to make sure the calibration on levels is consistent as well as any EQ / effects / etc on playback. listening on a mono-like sound source (e.g. portable USB speaker) can alter the mix you hear vs your stereo mixing. 

2) MP3 (if that's being exported and listened to) is a lossy algorithm which masks frequencies in order to reduce file size and less than 320K, it's gets exponentially worse...

as a general note: i routinely check my monitor levels to be consistent across all apps and devices, ensure OS and other updates haven't switched on some effects or mystery EQ and enhancement settings, etc. then listen to the mix on several of them before exporting. fwiw - one of the reasons people still use NS-10 or other bandwidth restricted speakers is to get a separation from the LF and HF components of a mix to see if the midrange is OK. then use full range to tweak the LF and HF.

 

[John Vere]

There’s a million scenarios. 
With explaining you projects routing I can only guess as to what you are not doing correctly. 
 

My best guess is the drum track is routed different than the other tracks. 
Check all your outputs 

Edited January 23 by John Vere

[msmcleod]

The most common reason for this I've seen over the years is when your hardware output is not set to unity gain and/or you're routing directly to the hardware output rather than through a master bus.

If the hardware output level is set to less than unity, your export will appear louder.

[scot]

There are different routings. The drum kit pieces (Addictive Drums2) are routed to an aux bus. The Aux bus, room and overhead drum channels/tracks and all analog channels/tracks are routed to master which outputs to headphones. Headphones is the source for the export. 24bit wav. The monitoring is on the same PC same headphones (Beats BT) and checked on all three audio players installed (AVS audio player, Media Player and Windows Media Player.) WIn10.  There are some apparent EQ differences between the players but the drums are consistently 2-3 db (estimate )louder in the exported mix. Its an i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz  that doesn't exceed 10% peak usage during, in DAW, playing.  Export is NOT Real time. The Source Category is Entire Mix. Source is Solo Headphones, Mix and Render options are all checked except the last three (real time, live input and audible bounce). Range is entire mix with proper start and stop times.

Just trying to see if anyone else is experiencing this. 

[David Baay]

I haven't checked for a while, but I believe it's still the case that CbB renders mono synth outputs 3dB higher than live playback. In that case, you need to freeze the synth before final mixing (kind of a best practice in any case). I tend to use stereo  synth outputs for everything to avoid this, but if you use independent outputs from a drum synth, those will tend to be mono so it's necessary to freeze in that case. If you mix the drums in the synth and only take the stereo "Master" output (or Master plus separate stereo room and overheads) you can avoid this.

EDIT: I re-checked this and confirmed mono synth tracks still gain 3dB on freezing, but not on bouncing/exporting; the level of mono tracks is correct in that case. So this would not account for the OP's issue as I thought it might.

Edited January 23 by David Baay

[Alan Tubbs]

Freezing soft  synths solves many of these problems. Then you are dealing with all audio.