# Albion one



## David Hall (May 19, 2017)

I've been wanting to ask this to the forums.

If anyone here is using Albion one is it just me or are the samples just too quiet specially on PP to MP? right out of the box its hitting the channel at -30 db on MP. 

I have a mixtool on my DAW that allows me to bring the volume a little higher but it tends to mud the entire mix, because albion library has this airy type of sound.. I know that the level of those dynamics are awesome but they just sound too quiet for my taste. 

Just wondering if any of you have been able to make it sound a little big than usual.

thanks.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (May 20, 2017)

They did it the correct way. That's exactly where pp should sit at. The source material must not be already super-hot. But you could always push the pre-gain by a few db across the board. This is just simply to increase the volume of all the tracks. It's the better option if straight volume is all you need. It's pre-fader and there's no saturation, compression, "analog" artefacts or whatever going on that would squash things together and muddy up the overall sound.

In Cubase, there is a "pre" section for any output/track. If your DAW doesn't have that, it probably comes with a gain plugin that you can use to increase the pre-gain of the track before anything else happens on it.

Spitfire libraries are all recorded at conservative levels, which is the right thing to do if you want to preserve the dynamic range and keep things clean, safe and flexible for the mixing process. But if I already know that my piece is supposed to be loud, I can get away with +10 dB pre-gain on all tracks across the board AND post-processing (saturation, compression etc.) and still be nowhere near "stupid loud".


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## David Hall (May 20, 2017)

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> In Cubase, there is a "pre" section for any output/track. If your DAW doesn't have that, it probably comes with a gain plugin that you can use to increase the pre-gain of the track before anything else happens on it.


well I'm one of the few who uses Studio one 3 as my DAW. I know that its kind of the industry standards to use Cubase or DP for midi orchestration. but my budget can't allow me to get Cubase as of yet.

Now.. there is a plugin like you mentioned on Studio one call the "mix tool" that what it basically does is increases the volume or pregain as you call it. but the tendency I find is that it tends to muddy the natural sound the library,, and like you mentioned, that soft sound its just magnificent from spitfire audio.

My main concern is that it just sounds too low.. you need to crank up the volume waaay too much to hear those soft dynamics. Like I've mentioned before on the forums, is that I'm new to this.. so maybe I need some good plugins to bring those soft dynamics a little closer that it isn't overly muddy when you hear them. I'm still looking for a thread that can show me the approach of the midi composing when it comes to mixing all this stuff.


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## jtnyc (May 21, 2017)

Most Spitfire libraries default to -6db. You can reset the volume to 0db and re-save the nki. It's not a lot, but it will help. You can use a plugin for some gain as well. Logic has a gain plugin which is handy. On the other hand, many libraries today are very loud, so the Spitfire stuff can seem extremely low in comparison. What I find is that the louder libraries need to come down in order to avoid my master bus getting quickly overloaded. I find that if I load up a bunch of Kontakt instances, some drums, piano and synths etc.. with my daw faders at 0, my master bus will be hitting 0 or above in no time. When I'm writing and overdubbing I try and keep the overall level hitting my master bus to -10 or less, because inevitably as i add more instruments and effects, the volume starts creeping up fast. I'd try bumping up Albion a bit and taking all you other stuff down and see how that works


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