universal output level?

[little pioneer]

hey, long time lurker with a potentially embarrassing question:

is there a plug in (or even a simpler answer i presume) to give yourself a universal output level? i record people's songs weeks/months apart and my volumes end up all different. i use the waves L2 for poor man's mastering and level them out in cd architect when someone has a full record, but before that they want all the songs they are collecting to be the same level. should i simply be using the peak volume meter and make sure they are at zero? thanks!

craig levy
http://www.littlepioneer.com

[farview]

Unless they are widely different songs (meaning different instrumentation and style) they should come out relatively the same volume if you have a method to your mixes and your recording levels are under control.


You are going to need an RMS meter. Matching the peak level will not make the songs the same listening volume. We do not percieve the peaks as loudness, so matching that up is pointless.

What software are you using?

[little pioneer]

thanks jay. i use cubase sx3.

[farview]

I meant your mastering program. (wavelab, CD archetect, etc....) What program are you burning the CDs with?

[little pioneer]

cd architect, but i'm referring to before mastering: often a very rough version what people take home at the end of the day, usually when the song isn't done yet.

[farview]

In CD archetect, use the volume handles to raise or lower the volumes of the songs to make them all the same. It works best when you lower the volume of the loud ones to match the quieter ones.

Then you can run them into a limiter to get them all loud.

[greatmagnet]

In CD archetect, use the volume handles to raise or lower the volumes of the songs to make them all the same. It works best when you lower the volume of the loud ones to match the quieter ones.

Hey Jay: I think what he's asking is if there's a way to get the RMS levels looking roughly the same from song-to-song within his DAW program (such as some kind of plugin he could use on the 2-bus?) so that he can just bounce rough mixes of each DAW composition to AIFF and send the client out the door with a roughly "level-correct" reference CD of that day's work...without having to take the additional and time-consuming step of going to a secondary freestanding mastering program such as CD architect.

SOOO...Is there an RMS level meter plugin available for one's DAW channel strips?

Some people here will probably say that if you're careful with your overall fader levels whilst recording and mixing, and then use the L2 plugin plus...drumroll...YOUR EARS, you should be able to get pretty close without anything fancy. That said, I realize it's hard to compare the song-to-song level differences using just your ears when you're in a DAW composition window as opposed to having all your AIFFS lined up in a row one-after-the-other in a mastering program.

Craig, just for background: you may often notice that softer, sparser compositions tend to come out a shitload louder than busier tracks do when you apply any kind of mastering limiter which is why Jay was saying earlier about not being able to use peak levels as your guideline and using RMS levels instead, which are more of a gauge of relative volume impact as perceived by human ears though I don't know and of the technical mumbo-jumbo behind that.

Cheers,
Adam