rendering volume problem

juanm2t · Post by **juanm2t** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:18 am

hi mates i have this little problem when rendering.
i used ableton to do my songs arrangement, i render with ableton...so my problem is why my songs have very low volume?...i´ve tried normalizing... not normalizing...i do not know what to do...is mastering thing?....how can i solve this thing here at home?

i appreciate your time
thanks

spyromus · Post by **spyromus** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:09 am

So you say that you can see the master volume jumping up towards the 0db when you play your arrangement and then, when you render it, it's rendered differently?

The most common problem (excuse me if I'm talking to a pro) is that there's a sample, like kick, high hat or some barely audible click you don't notice, but that's preventing normalization to do its job. Normalization doesn't let the sample to be cut and if that single click is 2 times louder than everything else, you get the half of the volume for the rest of the rendered track.

The way out could be to open the rendered version in the sound editor to see if there are any peaks. If there are, spot them in the arrangement and remove / compress. That's what comes to mind...

The last what you can do (if nothing else works) is to take the limiter / expander and expand your amplitude range using the maximum volume you can see as a threshold. It'll literally make that volume your new 0db hence making it louder, but certainly it's the loss of details and quality. Be careful.

Hope it helps if not you, then someone else.

provaznik · Post by **provaznik** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:08 am

inaudible spikes are common and steal headroom. maybe ableton's rendering engine isn't quite so hot. i don't know. it could be so many different things, it would be hard to tell without being there while you mix it.

sorgenkind · Post by **sorgenkind** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:28 am

I bought live back in the days of version 3, still have to be satisfied with the render to disk.
What I do to record my tracks now is route the outputs of my rme on the analog desk, some EQ and outboard action and then back in the computer, digital meets analog I couldn't be more happy .
IF you don't have mixer and such, you can create a new audio track, set input to resample, monitor to off and record your track in realtime, for this old school tape feeling

juanm2t · Post by **juanm2t** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:23 pm

hey thanks a lot for the replies... i just try to listen very careful to some samples...some of them have very high peaks so i just edit them ...but i think that´s not the problem...look i try to get the most volume of each channel in my song arrangement, also i try to not overload the master volume because if it happens i lose quality.....is just that i never overload each volume limiter...should i do this?...or just let it be like that...every song i do is always in -3 to 0 db range

Zoiberg · Post by **Zoiberg** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:22 pm

try to put a saturator on the master channel to level peaks and get some loudness. If you don't overdo it won't distort.

spyromus · Post by **spyromus** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 8:24 pm

I don't think it's the right thing to get the most of all channels. Something should shout out, something should be subtle. If you need your mix sound louder while still keeping it balanced, I would recommend the following steps:

1. Balance all your tracks relatively to each other
2. Move your master fader as high as possible yet to have no trimming
3. Render
4. Check the result in the sound editor (look for standalone peaks holding you from maximum volume)
5. Compress samples causing peaks (I don't mean lower the volume, but compress to preserve the balance of the original track) so that they no longer jump out of the mix.
6. Render again to gain the maximum volume with maximum quality
7. Compress the whole mix enough to get to the 95-98% of the max volume

(Again, if you compress things heavily, it eats the dynamic range and the whole mix becomes more shallow yet more powerful. Moderation is the key word here.)

This would be my recipe. If you feel weak in compression, scan this forum or the web for some tips / tutorials. It becomes really handy when you understand it. I would compare it to jumping off the plane without a parachute when you have no idea what the compression is in this business.

Again, hope it was helpful. If somebody has any comments / corrections, you are welcome!

juanm2t · Post by **juanm2t** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:12 pm

[quote="spyromus"]I don't think it's the right thing to get the most of all channels. Something should shout out, something should be subtle. If you need your mix sound louder while still keeping it balanced, I would recommend the following steps:

1. Balance all your tracks relatively to each other
2. Move your master fader as high as possible yet to have no trimming
3. Render...

hey thanks a lot...i was doing this before i read this post...but sure it worked a lot...i made a balance between every channel...like ambientattions, percs, snares, hithats....etc, now is much better....then i rendered....used the sound editor and i did equalize it...then i just made my songs to sound like 95% to 98%...like -2db to -0.5db...now they sound nice!

hey guys thanks a lot for your time, nice replies here...also i hope this can help other fellas around here