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anonymous 8 January 2005

i have a digital recorder/mixer with a CD/R-RW drive built in to burn
CD's directly from the unit.

however, when i mix down, everything sounds fine through the headphones, and the levels are right up near 0 dB.

but the mix is too quiet and soft on CD

actually, the bass and drums sound good, but the guitars and vocals are too quiet.

the bass i recorded directly into the machine, and i used a digital drum machine for the drums... so i believe that the recording levels were proper for the instruments that i plugged right into my recorder

and that it's only the guitar amps that i mic'd, and the vocals that sound rather distant and soft in the mix.

i only have a small guitar amp, and i haven't turned it up very loud for recording. is this my problem? do i simply have to turn up my amp louder?

any help would be appreciated

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Comments

AudioGaff Sat, 01/08/2005 - 13:46

Use that thing called the volume knob where ever your playing your CD and just turn it up. You often have give to up up much of feel and character of a mix just to get it so it sounds louder. It takes some specialized tools, skills and experience to do it correctly.

If you are comparing your results to something that was professionaly mastered, your stuff is not ever likely to be as loud. And you know what? That is ok. It doesn't to have to be. Louder isn't better, it's just louder...

anonymous Sat, 01/08/2005 - 14:43

AudioGaff wrote: Use that thing called the volume knob where ever your playing your CD and just turn it up. You often have give to up up much of feel and character of a mix just to get it so it sounds louder. It takes some specialized tools, skills and experience to do it correctly.

If you are comparing your results to something that was professionaly mastered, your stuff is not ever likely to be as loud. And you know what? That is ok. It doesn't to have to be. Louder isn't better, it's just louder...

thanks for the replies.... i understand that my mixes won't be as loud or ballsy as a professionl mix

but it's not really the overall volume of the mix that i'm disappointed in..... it's the fact that the bass and drum machine levels are loud, and the guitars and vocals are substantially lower and less powerful on CD, even though the levels are right up near 0 dB when i'm mixing....

anonymous Sat, 01/08/2005 - 18:03

Columbia, I agree you problem may be your headphones. This happens to everyone when they do their mixes. Wether you are using headphones or monitors or both,you have to learn and get used to them.

Dont get discuraged if it takes a few times to get your mix right.What you are hearing in your phones as what you percieve as correct may not be .

I have a pair of Mackie hr 824 mon's that I had to learn as well. You will learn to compensate. Take your mixes and play them in your home stereo, car stereo, over your friends- listen and take notes. Ask yourself what you hear, or more importantly- WHAT you dont hear...!

anonymous Sat, 01/08/2005 - 18:37

^ Agreed.

Don't have monitors yet, but I have the Athmf40s monitor headphones, and they're pretty good for mixing. I recorded and mixed all my tracks with them and my mixes sound good everywhere i've heard em. i also done that, and still do, send my tracks to mates to get to hear them on other systems AND to get some other ears to judge before i finish mixing.

anonymous Mon, 01/10/2005 - 12:27

plug your stereo into the output phono jacks on the back of your recorder...it will give you a different perspective than that of the head phones. probably a more realistic view of what it is really going to sound like than the headphones. headphones are good for finding technical stuff, but the stereo is going to give you a good idea on what it is going to really sound like. it is what i do, it works perfectly.

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