Rubbish with levels and gain

[smiTTTen]

So my beatgridding woes seem to be behind me only to be confronted by another schoolboy hurdle. Some tracks seems much louder, brighter or duller than others and while I do what I can to use the gain controls and the main level indicator it doesn’t seem enough. I find myself checking and re-checking to see if I have one or more of the line EQs or the filter off center but everything is dead level. Am I missing other techniques? . I put down a 30 minute mix that went straight in the recycle after it was done. I know I am asking for much more than I had with 1210’s but the differences are so much more noticeable given the fidelity of the recording.

Thoughts? Insults? Suggestions to buy a Mac?

SmiTTTen
http://tinyurl.com/yg3f7ce

[photojojo]

Are any of the tracks in question from questionable sources such as blogs or their like? Have you tried auto gain? Is keylock on? What's the quality of the key lock set to in preferences?

[smiTTTen]

Tracks are exclusively from Beatport. Autogain and Keylock on. I haven't looked into the key lock quality. Will look into that and see what I have. Thanks mate.

[gin+tonic]

I mix a lot of old funk tracks and rare grooves where the audio quality is noticeably different from some of my more modern tracks with better mastering.

One technique I have started to have success with is to use the effects available in Traktor to add some punch or depth to flat-sounding tracks. I've been doing this with T3 Reverb and T3 Delay (set to 3-knob control so I can control the parameters) which I use very slightly on a flat sounding track to shape the sound a bit so it matches the one I'm mixing into better. (I'm also using the EQ as well, of course.)

Give it a shot, it takes a little experimentation as to what settings and parameters of the effects to use to your liking, but I like having my FX configured more for sound eq-ing purposes now than for special effects which I tended to overuse

[VictorM]

I find also that using traktor pro, sounds better than traktor s4, i hope we get the upgrade to new traktor and all this shit with gains and levels are fixed.

[Paulo]

I have found that tracks from Beatport vary an AWFUL lot, louder, quiter,softer, brighter and so on, i tend to really listen to the "previews" of the tracks and make comparisons between a new one and one that i know is what i want...Also i find that looking at the size of the grid itself can help i.e. if two tracks are beside each other and on has a waveform half the size of the other.

[Yul]

More than often it isn't Beatport or any other vendor where lies the responsibility but also from labels that may provide different qualities when it comes to mastering their own tracks.

[Ajanix]

yep, i can sign that... i also buy most of my music at beatport... from some labels you get a real crunchy track with a wonderful mastering... but from some artists or labels you get poorly mastered tracks... (although they are very good tracks, they're just not mastered good enough) you just can't do anything against it ... only thing you can do is to try to get over the difference by using the EQ and FX...

Do you get the wavs or the mp3s?

[freeflysi]

Have you tried using "Platinum Notes" software to adjust the tracks. Personally I run everything I buy through it first. I found it makes a huge difference, I hardly ever have to adjust the gain.

[Ajanix]

Thx for that Tipp!

That Programm looks awesome, I have to try it out!

and when you're running the tracks through this programm, they all get on the same level? What about distortion??

Regards