Making my mix louder !
Ive only just started recording and my mixes arnt really quit but quiet enough even tho there hitting the red bars on traktor i noticed on the mixer part of traktor there is loads of little gains you can can some one tell whats the perfect to set them all at thanks
When you record in Traktor DO NOT let the record meter go into the red.
Make sure you practice getting all your mix levels as even as you can by ear LIVE while your mixing.
Good monitors at a moderate volume level will help you a lot.
Then download Audacity and open your mix and normalize it.
Here’s a video:
i love you guys to death around here , seriously but that advice is the worst thing you can tell to any newbie.
Your ears never lie, and sound never lies to them.
Use ur headphones, not monitors to listen to mix levels.
Telling someone to use monitors is assuming they understand the science of sound wavs, and speaker placement.
And most importantly, there is a higher percentage of newbies that think
“Turning the monitors up as loud as they will handle the music is the best to hear the quality” not so. Not at all. Not even close.
Another thing this missleads them to believe is that
Speakers that are bad or worn out is the reason they break.
The problem is they have no idea exactly WHAT it is that breaks speakers down… the answer is… distortion.
And turning the volume up WAY too high is exactly the way to do that.
Dude, use ur headphones.
Then you need to assume that they have headphones that are good enough that the person mixing can actually hear any distortion that is taking place.
The the persons ears are well tuned enough that they know what distortion sounds like
That the mixers headphone socket is not cranked up in volume to the point of the headphones distorting
And we go round and round again
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i will meet you at dawn,
chose a proper weapon,
take my paces,
turn,
and we will fire together!
Although one of us will be the victor… neither will reap the benefits to are to beheld by the (OP)
HAHAHAH
bros, do you even compress? lol jk. from my experience, mix down is best done on studio monitors as the final stage. can’t tell you how many times i thought i “nailed it” on headphones (sennheiser hd’s) only to realize the mixdown sucks in real life, this is especially true for selecting top loops.
but i digress, as that is for production. for dj mixes, i render in ableton with a compression strip on the master. other than that general advice, i cant give specifics as im using super old ableton 7.
Keep your levels out of the red.
You can always go into Audacity later (it’s free ya know?) and amplify to the desired loudness level. But, gain staging is important such that all your songs are at approximately the same gain/volume level.
With your speakers off, find loudest song that you have and adjust the channel gain to where it’s just under the red. Copy that song to channel 2 and adjust it’s channel gain to the same level. Now adjust the recorder gain till it is just under the red. At this point, you should be able to get the loudest, cleanest signal to the recorder as long as you keep the channel gains out of the red.
I use an external mixer, so I also adjust the master gain in Traktor to just under red, adjust the mixer booth output going back to the soundcard to just under red, and adjust my speaker levels with the master gain on the mixer.
When I record my mixes I usually record them at a low volume so I’m sure there’s no clipping, then I normalize it.
i must be doing something completely wrong because im reading all these suggestions and i keep seeing these “work-arounds” all over the place
i just dont get why djs today dont know how to keep a top level audio signal? something has to be going wrong here.
i never normalize
compress
render
mixdown
or do ANYTHING after the mix is done.
I record it live, and i watch my output level… thats it.
If im not sure about the mix, ill record about 2 minutes of audio to start. then ill play it back in Winamp and watch the Volume meters to make sure they are near peak at their edges
then i just leave my levels there and start a full mix session.
WHile im mixing, i watch me levels from time to time to make sure im still good.
i even do this in the club.
what is all this you guys are doing? where do you get this info from that tells you, this is the proper way to do it?
Im not saying youre wrong, im just saying, somewhere, you were missled and now ur passing the same info onto other people
I watch my levels too… but sometimes I’m 1-2 dbs off from 0, so why not normalizing it to get it to 0?
Not all UV levels are created equal. I know the S4’s meters suck big time, although they appear to work better for DVS as opposed to digital files.
Secondly, most beginners likely don’t know about gain vs. volume. I know I didn’t because my prior experience with a mixer involved a really old Realistic mixer from Radio Shack back in the day and whatever crappy mixers I used to DJ weddings/parties in college. There was no gain - only line levels. It wasn’t until getting a full-on mixer and decks that I figured out gain vs. volume and the importance of levels.
Finally, I try to keep my levels peaked at -1 on my mixer, so I use Audacity to amplify my mixes up to -.1 or -.5 before uploading. Would they be OK at whatever -1 on my mixer actually translates to? Probably. I’m OCD, OK? 
This completely, agree with AntiFM, I’ve been DJing for a long old while now and I’ve never post processed any DJ mixes, the tracks are already mastered (some better than others admittedly), but just use the channel faders and balance the mix/levels to maintain consistancy using the gains as applicable, avoid the red and all should be well. Your ears are finely tuned bit of tech, use them.
Are people not paying attention to their record levels in traktor? To me this sounds like more not paying attention to the record gain than incorrect master levels… Make sure on your master level it just kisses the red or however much you like to engage the traktor limiter.. Then make sure that in the cassette tape record box in traktor your level there is high enough that it will sporadically hit a bit of red but not continually stay there.
Headphones are for cueing or for mixing when you have poor monitors or delay issues.
Your mix is in your monitors and that translates directly to the dance floor/FOH mains.
Theres a Knob Generally Called “Cue Mix” available on 99% of DJ mixers and Mappable on every controller I’ve seen which, when turned, allows you to hear the Mix Master on headphones without speakers.
Some are more highly tuned that others, and the way I’ve seen even the biggest names run DJ mixers it looks like Red/Green color blindness is something that goes along with being a famous DJ as well.
Yup monitors be the way to go!
In regards to all the diff methods, in the end i know the rules, but i also trust my ears + the feedback/ comments from my esteemed colleagues. good luck op, lots of good suggestions here. just gotta test them out to see what works for you… and i know the feels, as i use to slave and slave over getting that extra oomph in my dj mixes and podcasts.
record below the red in traktor, then use this tutorial to master http://abletonlife.com/how-to-master-a-track-in-ableton-live
after i did it once, i just saved all the presets as a template and i can master a track in like 2 seconds
bring your levels down so you are not in the reds… red is bad… once your mix is recorded you can load them into a mastering program of sorts. Studio One, T-racks 3(free sort of ), Wavelab, Audacity(free) are a few mastering programs… just drop a limiter and you will be fine
Don’t be loud.
Be good.