mastering and mixing down

whats the tricks?

im trying to figure this out.im importing 3 wavs into N.a vocal,guitar and bass,that were recorded at another location.i then record drums into this using 4 mics on bas drum,snare and 2 overheads.these are the steps i have been using.
1.import wavs.
2.set up 4 new tracks
3.record my drums with a gate on the snare
4.playback, and adust all leels to keep the playback meter just below the red zone,just getting into it once in a while
5.add “vocal” comp. to the vocal track
6.add "warm"comp. to the bass track,but leave the guitar track, as it was recorded through a comp.
clone the vocal and guitar tracks, and off set them very slightly.pan the clone track 100% left and the original to25% right(this adds a nice spacial effect)
7. readjust levels
8. add a mastering comp. to the master channel,adjust levels
9.play with eq. on channel strips.adjusting levelsalso
10.mixdown to single wav. file
now, all is good except when i burn a cd, the volume is not as loud as i think it should be,but if i try to add more comp.or volume before mixdown,i get distortion in the wav.file
im just using 16 bit mix@44000hrz, but i can go 24 if my pc can keep up.is there somthing i should or should not be doing?? if so please reply,i could really use the feedback
lates version of N
amd athlonxp 2300,384 ram…windows xp
maya44 mk11 sound card
crate 16 channel mixer (recording from the inserts)
the imported wavs are from a high doller home studio, so i dont think they are an issue.

When you do the mixdown, show the “More Options” and make sure you have selected to process the Master channel. If it’s not selected, this could be the reason your getting lower levels from the CD.
If your soundcard is a 24 bit card, might as well use 24 bit for the greater dynamic range.

-Ken

yes that is checked always has been…and im not saying that the volume is real low,just not the same as commercial cds…and i realize im no professional, and i dont have 1000s of dollars in equipment, just wanna know if i should quit trying to get that kind of clearity and volume from what im working with

Anyway - keep you $$$ in your pocket. Don’t need to spend these.

If you just open the mixdown WAV file with an external editor, do you have a “whatever is normal” level then with the peaks nearly full range ? On average -6 to -2 db or so ? I think you should have that.

Try mixing to 24 bit an convert ro 16 bit afterwards ?

I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY AN EXTERNAL EDITOR, AND IVE TRIED MIXING DOWN TO 24 BIT, BUT THERE IS A MIDI NOTE INSERTED EVERY TWENTY SECONDS LIKE ITS A TRIAL VERSION, I DONT GET THAT EITHER, BUT IVE BEEN STICKING TO 16 BIT ANY WAY SO I HAVNT WORRIED ABOUT THAT

drumfreak5,

I use Goldwave, a great shareware external wav editor, look under: effects - volume - maximise. (www.goldwave.com)

You can then choose a preset - full dynamic range will maximise the volume of your final wav without causing distortion.

Is your soundcard 24bit - I had the same problem with my Audiophile, had to upgrade n-track to 24 bit version.

For general mastering tips - www.audiominds.com is a good place to start.

There is al ot to using a compressor for mastering. One thing a lot of folks don’t realize when they try mastering the first time is what frequency range is really making the compressor work. You may have an out of control low end that if it were EQ’d correctly or rolled off below 40 hz or something like that would let you get a lot more volume. This sort of situation causes the compressor to work to much when it really doesn’t need to and when you really need the compression it clamps down so much that you get audible artifacts. SO maybe youa regetting 6db of reduction the whole tie becuase the low end is out of whack and when the high end pushes the level more, it clamps down to 12 or 15 db of reduction. If the offending frequencies were EQd correctly, the places where you were getting 15 db of reduction before might only need 5 or 8 db. That is a totally made up example and I don’t know if this is the case for you, but look into that. If you think something liek this might be the case and you can’t hear what it might be, try out something like SpanVST to see if you have any weird peaks on the super low end or something like that and see how the compressor reacts at those points.

Hello,

This may or may not apply. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I was getting different levels and a boomy bass when I was burning to a CD. I finally figured out that if you use Windows for burning CDs it will burn the .wav file with the bass and treble settings that are set in the Windows settings.

Just a thought.

Merry Christmas!!!