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Mixing: Why is my sum volume so low?
I'm mixing a track in Auria and many of the individual track meters reach zero and a couple of them occasionally jump a few db over. However, my master meter (fader set to zero) never shows anything above -3 db. When creating a youtube video from this mixdown in Lumafusion (volume fader also set to zero), then uploading to youtube, the volume is significantly lower than other random videos I tested against on that platform.
Is the answer to simply bump up the master fader in Auria or Lumafusion or is there a fundamental issue that I'm missing in the mixing process?
Comments
If you’re hitting -3 to 0db on your master fader, DO NOT bump it up as your chances of clipping and nasty distortion increase.
A brick wall limiter as the final plugin on your master track will help. Disclaimer: I haven’t used these particular plugins on iOS but TB Barricade, FAC Maxima, and Fabfilter Pro-L2 seem to be popular choices. Hopefully someone else will chime in with real world experience with these particular plugins to direct you to the best one (probably Fabfilter if you’ve got the $$$).
There's a native limiter on the PSP Master Channel Strip in Auria with knobs for HPF, INPUT, CEILING, ATTACK, RELEASE, OUTPUT, and buttons for SOFT and OPTO (for attack/release)
Seems intuitive enough, I suppose, but having never used a limiter, I could use some tips. Is there a difference between this limiter and a "brick wall limiter"?
You should be careful of letting individual channels jump too high - some judicious use of compression might be in order.
It shouldn’t be a problem to hit -3 dB on the master though, as that’s pretty normal. If you want to make it louder overall, then mix it as you want it to sound, and render it to a stereo mix. Any increase in perceived loudness should come from post-mixdown mastering.
Spend mastering time on identifying where to apply some very selective EQ, adding any additional compression to selective frequencies, and limiting the overall mix. You can get it louder overall, but that shouldn’t be the only aim of mastering.
I'm happy with the mix as it sounds in Auria and would really like to avoid messing with those faders. Was hoping I could remedy this on the master bus. Should I be limiting (or compressing) the louder tracks or limiting at the master bus?
This video is interesting and shows how to check a youtube video's audio normalization.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wIicS8hKbeQ
Youtube will bring down a video that is too loud but won't raise the volume of a video that is too quiet. It says mine is -7.4db under what would trigger the normalization.
Multiband compressor to boost the signal and even it out and a limiter to cap the output on master channel would do the trick. That’s what I’d do but I’m no expert
Just be aware that normalization is usually concerned with gain, so it’s dependent on peaks in the audio. That’s why EQ or compression allows you to push the volume up, as it tames those peaks, and if you can remove any troublesome peaks on the loudest channels, then you can start to push all of them higher.
Sometimes you can’t hear exactly how much louder those peaks are, so maybe check each channel with a spectrum analyzer and see if you can identify any issues?
@Sabicas : my recommendation is to not integrate the final master/limiter eq to the full project. I would mixdown to stereo and do your limiter/final eq experiments on that. If the mix sounds “right” to you, don’t mess with eq or a Multiband compressor (a multiband compressor is as much an eq effect as a dynamics processor).
It will take a little trial and error to find what settings of the limiter will result in the dynamics level you seek. If it says your level are -7 db below the level that would trigger normalization, see what happens if adjust your limiter up 7 dB.
Watch out for messing with the dynamic range too much. Modern limiters have gotten very good — and as a result sometimes can squash dynamic range without one noticing.
It looks like it's all about measuring LUFS. Searching this forum, I've only found mention of two apps that have LUFS metering: The Fabfilter limiter and TB Barricade.
What I don't understand is the difference between what a limiter and compressor does. By limiting, you are compressing, right? Reading descriptions of each and they sound like the same thing.
I'm not sure what you mean here. I shouldn't use the limiter on the master bus? Are you saying I should do a mixdown, without a limiter, then import that track into a blank Auria project and play with limiting there for another mixdown?
Sorry, confused.
A limiter and a compressor are pretty much the same thing, but compressors generally use lower ratios, and are (mostly) used in more subtle ways.
Limiters are basically used to turn up the perceived volume of the mix and chop off all the peaks, whereas compressors are generally used to trim off peaks on individual channels.
Mixing and mastering are like learning to play any instrument. There are no short cuts, just lots of practice. Most of us don’t have treated rooms and great monitors which makes it harder still.
However a couple of tips which might help?
Give your ears a rest. Give yourself a couple of days without listening to the track and try again. You might be surprised at how it sounds after a break.
Compare your mix to a commercial song/songs you know really well in similar styles to yours on the same monitors. See where the commercial tracks sound better and try and work out why. Is it the arrangement? The mix?
Also check the bass. Often the frequencies that can’t be heard are taking up lots of energy in the mix. Try cutting everything below about 30Hz and see what that does. If it makes a big difference then check what tracks are creating the energy in the low frequencies and adjust. Or just get rid of everything below 30 anyway. Unless you’re playing through enormous speakers and want to feel your kidneys vibrate you won’t be missing anything. :-)
When it all sounds good, a little gentle compression on the master bus with slow attack and fast release 2:1 ratio would be a good starting point to ge the overall levels up without ruining things. That’s assuming you have got the overall mix balance right.
A hard limiter to catch stray peaks will also help.
But ultimately it’s just practice and teaching your ears what to listen for.
I’ve been doing it for decades and still don’t consider myself even close to being good at mixing or mastering. But being good enough for what I do is good enough for me to enjoy making music.
This is really good advice, as people often overuse limiters then can’t figure out why their finished music sounds so dead and lifeless.
One good way to figure out if you’re messing things up is to refer back to your stereo mixdown and see if it sounds better. If so, you probably want to dial back the limiter.
@Sabicas personally I think it's absolutely fine to tackle this on the Master Bus in Auria (rather than a separate project).
Modern mastering is all about targeting the appropriate loudness levels for streaming platforms, and the best way to do this is with a Limiter such as Pro L2 or Barricade.
I made a video explaining the process in detail, essentially you use the limiter to reach the correct loudness, and not for compression or aggressive limiting. With your mix it will just catch the loudest transients so they don't clip. The video shows how to do this with Pro L2 but you can achieve the same thing with Barricade, although the UI isn't quite as nice:
I personally find that it is worthwhile to separate mastering from mixing. There is a lot of temptation when doing both at once by putting the mastering stuff on your master bus — to do too much at once. Mastering and mixing kind of require two different mindsets.
So, yes, I am recommending that you create a separate simple stereo session with your stereo mixdown and do the mastering stuff on that.
I agree, as there’s a missed opportunity for A/B comparisons with the original mixdown, which should sound like the final mix, regardless of loudness.
It also gives you better options with regards to tools - mastering shouldn’t involve heading straight for the limiter - some surgical EQ is a much more effective start point, as a multiband EQ can sometimes be used much less destructively than any form of compression.
Mastering shouldn’t be a quick process either - it’s something that should be given adequate time to carefully review the mix in detail.
This is one area that needs to be addressed by iOS GarageBand. A master volume fader is absolutely needed.
In this case the OP has a mix he is happy with, so the only thing he needs to do is to use a limiter with LUFS metering to reach the target loudness for YouTube - that's it.
There's no reason to be using multiband compression or EQ, because those tools will alter the character of the mix and the sound signature. Whereas a limiter targeting -13LUFS will just deliver the same mix but at the correct loudness for Youtube, which is what the OP wants.
In this scenario all the limiter is going to do is control the very loudest transients to ensure that the file doesn't clip, it's not going to affect the mix in terms of aggressive compression or limiting.
Whether you do this on the Master Bus in the original project or in a separate project is just a matter of personal choice.
@Sabicas : you asked about the difference between a limiter and a compressor. A limiter is essentially a special type of compressor that is focused on making sure that the output signal never crosses a particular threshold.
When we call something a “compressor” it implies that the device will reduce the volume by some amount when it crosses the loudness threshold we set. Typically, one sets a compression ratio that determines how much the gain is reduced when the threshold is crossed. Further, compressors have a something called a ‘knee’ what influences how much gain reduction happens when you are around the threshold you set. Typically, the compression ratios one uses vary from 1:2 to 1:8 depending on the situation.
Limiters are essentially compressors with an infinite compression ratio. When the input level is higher than the limiter threshold , there is no increase in output level (whereas with a compressor the output would increase but less than it would have increased if there weren’t a compressor).
It turns out that audio engineers have figured out some tricks to make limiters able to accomplish this limiting without making obviously squashed the way that most compressors would if you set them to their infinite compression ratio.
They often do this with ‘lookhead’ which lets them look at what is going to happen after the signal first crosses the threshold. This lets them be very smart about how to accomplish the gain reduction.
Basically, a limiter is so specialized on this one task that it lets you fine tune the things relevant to this use case.
It is true that you can do this on the master bus and that it is personal choice. My experience has been (both myself and watching people learn to master and watching people that have mastered the art of mastering) that for most (but not all people), it is helpful to reduce one’s options at each stage of the game in order to make it easier to focus on the task at hand.
A lot of people (particularly people new to the dark arts) can become distracted by options. And, yes, it is just a personal choice. One can get the same results by doing it on the master bus of the mix.
@espiegel123 agreed, all good 😀
With a modern limiter targeting the relatively dynamic loudness targets of streaming services you can get very transparent results, your mix will sound the same, but at the correct loudness for the target platform.
The limiter is more likely to color the sound than the EQ if it is a multiband limiter (as most are). The limiter will apply crossover filters to the signal to split into bands before limiting, so just putting it on the bus will have an effect, even without any limiting.
EQs on the other hand are more dynamic, and only apply a filter when a frequency band is selected and changes made. EQ is generally considered to be ‘cleaner’ for mastering, which is why it’s often applied before any type of compression.
If loudness is the only factor, then a limiter is probably fine.
Not really, in this case the Limiter is Pro L2 or Barricade, which are single band, and typically when targeting -14 or -13 LUFS they are doing very little - just catching the very loudest transients so that the audio doesn't clip. If you watch the video I posted above this will be pretty clear. Streaming platform loudness targets allow for pretty dynamic music, so if you master properly for them you're not going to get much colouring from the limiter, unlike the days of CD mastering.
One use-case I can see for EQ is if you add a low-cut filter at around 30hz to remove any low-end energy that isn't adding anything to the track (assuming the music is not in a genre where sub-bass is important). This could help to create a louder master for streaming since that low-end energy is contributing to final measurement, and removing it could give a couple of DB of extra headroom, while still creating a dynamic master.
Maybe that one is more transparent than most, but I’d be interested to see if there are any mastering engineers here who could provide input, especially on why EQ is considered cleaner.
There are also a lot more use cases for EQ than just rolling off the bottom end though. The fact that they can be very narrow band is one reason to use them, and there is one thing they can do that compressors and limiters can’t - they can boost frequencies.
Limiting definitely makes things louder, but it can also suck the life out of a mix if it’s overdone. That’s where other mastering tools come into play.
Sure, in other situations a mastering engineer might do a lot more work to sweeten the track, in which case the whole panoply of tools can be deployed. But in this case it's only about achieving the target loudness for YouTube (which isn't that loud, so doesn't require aggressive processing), and all you need for that is a limiter with LUFS metering, especially (as in this case) if the artist is happy with the existing mix.
Mastering traditionally was the process of preparing a track for a target medium, such as vinyl or CD. For vinyl mastering engineers had to do specific things such as low-cuts etc (to fit the medium). It's still the same now: you master to the specific platform, so a streaming master destined for YouTube doesn't require the same kind of treatment as a CD master would. In this case the only requirement is that it conforms to the target loudness.
Yes, CD is a special case due to the limitations of the medium, and in the early days, older material mastered for CD sounded pretty terrible, especially as they were digitized after mastering and bit-reduced.
Bottom line though, is use your ears - if it sounds terrible for the medium, then the mastering is probably at fault.
Great info here. Very educational. A lot of the questions I was about to ask have been answered already. Much appreciated.
Mix = -23 LUFS
Master = -14 LUFS (-1 Peak)