# How to make tracks louder without limiter/maximizer?



## mrd777 (Jan 16, 2016)

Hi guys,

I use Cubase and was wondering how I can get my tracks louder without using something like a limiter or a maximizer.

Every time I use those plugins, yes, the volume is really high, but then the track sounds like crap. Sounds dead, over compressed, no volume changes between sections, etc.

I'm hoping for some insight on this....

Before you rage at me about making a mix louder, keep in mind, when I do nothing, the tracks sound super quiet when played alongside other tracks and it makes for a terrible experience when switching from my own music to, say, the radio which blasts me ears to death because I have the volume @ like 50, when the radio only requires 25.... so you can imagine the deadly switch!

Thank you!
Dave


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## muk (Jan 16, 2016)

Make sure that you set proper gain staging. You should find plenty of tutorials if you search, here is a pretty good one:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep13/articles/level-headed.htm

If you follow these steps your levels should be good. Other than that, you can insert additional faders - Sonalksis Free-G would be a free one.


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## gsilbers (Jan 16, 2016)

mrd777 said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I use Cubase and was wondering how I can get my tracks louder without using something like a limiter or a maximizer.
> 
> ...



yes, this is the question thats always asked but sadly there is no magic answer. 
the simple answer is do proper mixing and use a mastering engineer. 

try these plugins. 
sample magic a/b
IK multemedia TR3. 

also, keep in mind some random things like the amount of instrumentation those radio songs have. 
the amount of bass and the way its mixed. 

if you wan to take it a step further after you do the proper mixing and reading all about it online....
you can do a couple of tricks. 

once you finish mixing a track, place a limiter on the mix buss and squash it until it sounds as loud
as those radio mixes. sound terrible, right? now go back to the mix and fix what sounds bad. use eq and compression were its needed. bypass the limiter but keep using it for reference. 
then go and get a metering plugin that has the k-12 or k-14 scale and mix towards hitting the average. for pop tracks try to get it all within spec. once its mixed and it sounds right on your desk, try it on the car speakers and so on. 
once done thats really it. k-12 is good enough. if you want to go up then try fx-g from steven slate. its just a volume/clip knob but if the mix is right then it will sound right louder. 
oh, also remember its all about the peaks. if you reduce the peaks on transients then the rms/average loudness will go up. if you reduce too much the peaks then you have a crappy lifeless mix. so its a balance. there lies a part of the art and craft of mastering and mixing nowadays. 

here are some video showing how to mix and master. 
http://theproaudiofiles.com

also, just so its clear. loud and volume and amplitud and velocity are all different but related things. 
loud cannot happen in a vacuum. (contrast). It also depends on whats loud, the bass will not sound as loud as a ambulance siren at the same volume. velocity on an instrument will sound the same no matter the volume.


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## RiffWraith (Jan 16, 2016)

mrd777 said:


> when I do nothing, the tracks sound super quiet when played alongside other tracks



What other tracks? Professionally mixed and mastered tracks? Well, how do you think those tracks got to be so loud? Compression and limiting. Proper arrangement helps as well, but that's another discussion.

Before you knock the tools, you need to learn how to properly use them. Not easy, I know, and it takes a while. There are a bunch of tutorials online you can have a look at, to get you started.

But one thing is for certain - you will _not_ get your tracks as loud as professionally mixed and mastered tracks without proper use of compression and limiting.

Cheers.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Jan 16, 2016)

What does that even mean: quiet, and loud? Is that a question of perceived loudness, or are you referring to numbers? Are you looking at RMS values, peaks? What type of music are you comparing your tracks to?

An electronic dance pop tune or a modern Metalcore production will constantly blare in your face no matter what. Simply because that type of music has an alibi-like dynamic range anyway - some of that stuff peaks at the very limit (like, -0.01 dBFS) while averaging just around -7 dBFS, -12 if they're being somewhat more reasonable. That's silly loud.

If you want your own music to sound just as striking - it's not really that hard to achieve in the digital domain, but the question is: does it even make sense? An acoustic celtic folk tune just can't be as loud as a Dubstep track. Not if it's been mixed in a way that makes sense for that kind of music. My own stuff is generally quite a bit quieter than the stuff you hear on the radio. I'm OK with that. How could it not be? My romantic woodwind tootling would sound completely out of place if it was as loud as pop music or trailer soundtracks.

But anyways ... you can make your music as loud as your ears can take inside your DAW if that's what you want. It's not as if you had real trouble with noise floor or anything. You don't have to record anything super-hot and there's no need for your tracks - or samples/VI - to be super-loud at the beginning stages of mixing. I start off with conservative levels and make sure that the stuff is averaging around -18 dB with faders on unity. Don't hit your plug-ins hot. Remember that you can adjust gain of your tracks and outputs in Cubase pre-fader.

The other thing is that getting loudness - and saturation - isn't really a question of slapping one instance of something at one point of the project and gaining 15 dB of volume there, but more a matter of adding a little bit at several different stages. You can start off by slightly saturating individual tracks, then perhaps compressing or saturating the busses once again, then perhaps pushing the submix by a few dB again (a lot of plug-ins allow you to raise the outcoming signal without limiting or maximizing or anything etc.), and finally squeeze out another 2-3 dB with a limiter at the very end ... just bit by bit, carefully and with musical sense. This is not easy. It takes time and experience and one never really stops getting better at it.

Also: the more you cut, the more you can push. The more you can free your tracks up of unneeded ballast, the more latitude you have.


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## bbunker (Jan 16, 2016)

It's the mix. Limiters (and Maximizers and Compressors, of course) are always just squeezing the dynamic range of what they 'hear.' And if there's a ton of energy in one part of the frequency spectrum, then it's going to hit the limiter harder. And it'll squeeze everything, but it won't really sound 'louder' because you're still not hearing the detail. So you turn it up even more, and by the time you're hearing what you want to hear then it's overcompressed. So, it's always either overcompressed or too 'quiet.'

The solution is just to improve the mix. When the instruments that need to cut aren't filling up all the frequencies that they don't need to be in, then your overall bandwidth will be better, and you won't need to squeeze everything to hear what you want to hear.

Hope that makes any kind of sense.


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## rJames (Jan 16, 2016)

I totally get what you're asking mrd777. When you use compression and limiting, you are "leveling" the track as a consequence.
As Riff says, that IS how you do it. But your question is, "how do I make it loud using the tools that everyone uses, but still keep my track sounding good (and the way I want it to sound)?" 
This IS the question that we all face as we learn this business if we are the ones mixing and mastering our own music. Of course, we have to do that as we get good enough to send our material out but are not yet successful enough to pay a professional to do it for us.
So, in this new world where we have a pro studio in our homes, we need to figure out another solution.
I like gsilbers solution above.
Lately, I've been bouncing out each track to audio, placing them in a new project and re-mixing. I say remixing because I try to make my midi track as mixed as possible as I work.
I know this is the wrong method... but it is my solution for the predicament I find myself in. (having to mix and master my own material)
I mix and master this new project (all audio stems) at one time.
First I mix the project as well as possible. BTW, the audio project, though the same as the midi project, sounds different even before re-mixing.
But with the audio files, I can bring up the levels of things I want to focus on. And lower the tracks that need to stay below the radar.
After its mixed pretty well, I add my mastering chain to the output, bring up the levels to "mastered," levels (in actuality I do this in a 2 or 3 step process)
This limiting brings up new problems in the mix since it is bringing up EQ areas that weren't supposed to be so loud. Now you can go back into the mix and rebalance everything.
Sometimes I find that I have to go back to the midi project to make things right (cause when you bring up the volume and solo the track you can hear just how bad one little moment can be)... then just bring that audio stem back into my "mix, mastering" project.
As I am "mixing," this audio project, I'm trying to bring up the levels as high as I can so that the limiting (bringing up freqs that I don't want) has less of a jarring effect.
Take this with a grain of salt, cause I'm still a work in progress.
Ron


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## mrd777 (Feb 10, 2016)

Sorry for a slow reply guys. I didn't get any emails regarding the replies for some reason.

Thank you all for the replies. I will trying what you are all saying. 

Regarding this:


RiffWraith said:


> Before you knock the tools, you need to learn how to properly use them.
> Cheers.



I actually was not knocking the tools. I was just saying that I suck at using them!

Thanks again everyone!


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## MartinAlexander (Feb 16, 2016)

With film music the most beautiful thing in my opinion is, that the music is "bigger than life" (so not "realistic" like classical recordings), but still dynamic, rich, spacious. I don't know why to sacrifice all this for loudness, but however, if you want to make loudness the #1 priority, here's how i personally would approach it.

Mixing:
1.) Bass takes up A LOT of energy -> Less Bass and you can drive it harder into the compressor / limiter.
2.) Mix with a focus on 3-4khz, since in this range the ear is very delicate so less energy is needed. It will also shift the music more "in yo face" and make it more aggressive.
3.) Don't use much Reverb / Mix quite dry (2D / "in yo face") and the ones you use, should be very short. It will be easier to compress, without obvious artifacts.
You'll get also the effect, that the music doesn't sound like a "sea of sound", but like nailed on the cones of your speakers.
Finalizing:
4.) Use a good Limiter

There are some other things to consider, but this would be the most important factors in my opinion.
Still i personally would only do it on styles where loudness / hard compression is simply part of the artistic aesthetics (EDM, Metal, etc.).

Hope this helps.


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## guydoingmusic (Feb 17, 2016)

A very well known mastering engineer gave some advice recently - don't mix the tracks too hot/loud. Let mastering take care of that. Also, he said that most mastering engineers have these units that can be stacked together x10 that each have +2db headroom more than any of our soundcards. He uses 4 units stacked which gives him +8db louder than what we can get. But having said that...

2 words - Gain staging. Start there. Don't underestimate this part!

Also, don't overcompress things in your mix along the way. For instance - don't slam a vocal into a compressor where you are getting -12db of gain reduction. Subtle reductions across the channels that need it (3-5db in most cases). And DON'T compress every track... If it needs compression, then compress it. If not, DON'T! 

Don't Mix and Master in the same session if you are not using a mastering engineer. Mix the track at a good comfortable level. Then master the mixed stereo track in a separate session.


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