when i started out recording with my delta 44, i noticed my levels didn't match that of professional recordings, with a couple years of experience now, i've learned since then that you need "master" it all to make it up to the right volume for export, work with compressing on drums, and for guitar when i record distortion, i use an sm57 mic on the marshall halfstack and feed it to my firepod, and in cubase i check the mixer inputs and raise the volume on my firepod till it's just before clipping, this normally is a good volume level i find and with the track i recorded it on still on 0 volume, when i export it, i raise the main mix volume in the trasport panel to around +5, when played with other mp3s i think this is a good volume level, now i'm not sure about drums, but i've always just recorded the drums with the mics just before clipping with the snare, and the rest a little lower, and i always have to compress the drums using the multiband compressor to get them to the right volume level to go well with the guitar.. hope that helps..the next step i think for you is working with plugins and effects/eqs, work with the multiband compressor, and experiment. i don't know haha, just mess around with the program. later

daveblue222 wrote: hey just recorded a rough demo into cubase using my multimix firewire mixer. all the gains were at the correct level. once recorded into cubase I noticed that after a quick mix of the song the voulme of it doesnt match that of say an mp3/playedback computer alerts/mp3s ect....

maybe the inputs on the mixer within cubase were down?????

anyways if someone could help me with this that would be great.

also now that I know how to record into cubase (on seperate tracks), and do a basic mix, I know want to know what is the next step to take to start mastering/editing the sound? and how to do so.

cheers :shock:

Welcome to recording, and realizing what sets the pros apart from the novices. It is all about RMS and limiting.

There are many debates about dynamic range, how hot to record in your DAW, how hard to hit the master, should you have a master at all, etc, etc.

You should consider looking at some good multiband mastering compressor/limiters, like Waves C4s, L1s, L2s, some of the TC stuff, the rebadged Roger Nichols line, etc. Then it is a matter of trial and error through lots of listening.