Mastering Volume of Mix

**joeymeyer** · 10-01-2010, 01:43 AM

I've been working on a 80 minute mix over the past few days, I have about 8 clips, i have noticed there is small disreprencies between clips in volume, is there any program that could help level out my mix, I did not use the eq's to much making the mix to try and level things out but there is still small discreprencies, i am using traktor, i do have accesss to ableton and sound stuidio if there is any sort of way using any of these programs that will let me make small volume changes on a 80 min file.

**BentoSan** · 10-01-2010, 02:14 AM

Some people will tell you to use a compressor, which will basically squash all of the loud parts of the track down to the lower lvled parts of your tracks - this will add all sorts of harmonics to your track and arguably lower the sound quality of your mix.

Instead i would recommend volume automation of your mix using a program like Ableton Live to bring the quieter parts of your mix up to your desired volume level - this method will add far less distortion to your mixers than the compression approach.

Where i would use compression is to catch the extra loud tiny sections of your track (like for example if there is a snare thats sitting too loud in the mix) to bring those parts down to your desired level.

From there id go onto the generally distortion(remember some distortion can be your friend!) of of the track as a whole - theres a couple approaches. You can leave your mix clean and just release it like this, or you can add some extra warmth using a compressor to add a little bit of compression to your mix to add some added character. Some people believe this helps glues things together but if you did your job right in the first place in the mix its not necessary (that doesn't mean you still cant do it though).

**Golden Smith** · 10-01-2010, 06:45 AM

You get what you pay for so if you played a track on three different sets of thousand dollar speakers they'd all sound different.

**Sanderbongertman** · 10-01-2010, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by BentoSan

Some people will tell you to use a compressor, which will basically squash all of the loud parts of the track down to the lower lvled parts of your tracks - this will add all sorts of harmonics to your track and arguably lower the sound quality of your mix.

Instead i would recommend volume automation of your mix using a program like Ableton Live to bring the quieter parts of your mix up to your desired volume level - this method will add far less distortion to your mixers than the compression approach.

Where i would use compression is to catch the extra loud tiny sections of your track (like for example if there is a snare thats sitting too loud in the mix) to bring those parts down to your desired level.

From there id go onto the generally distortion(remember some distortion can be your friend!) of of the track as a whole - theres a couple approaches. You can leave your mix clean and just release it like this, or you can add some extra warmth using a compressor to add a little bit of compression to your mix to add some added character. Some people believe this helps glues things together but if you did your job right in the first place in the mix its not necessary (that doesn't mean you still cant do it though).

If you know what you're doing with a compressor it's a good tool to use together with volume automation. If you don't however, do not use it because then, as BentoSan mentioned, the sound quality will get worse.

@BentoSan, one point where it can also come in 'handy' is when you want to achieve a general feel to your mix. Different tracks are all mastered differently with different compressors and different sound characteristics. Using a compressor lightly to color the sound can make all tunes have more of the same feel to them than normal