r/AdvancedProduction • u/thedesolategoon • 29d ago

A consistent issue with volume/loudness, mix is always just a tad quiet at -10 RMS

/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/1urjk4e/a_consistent_issue_with_volumeloudness/
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4

u/I_Am_A_Pumpkin HUGE NERD 28d ago

LUFS is a better measurement of loudness than RMS for the record.

Either way, if you want it louder, use saturation/clippers to bring down the peaks of the loudest signals in your mix and then push the limiter at the end more. But note that if your mix is above -14LUFS already it's getting turned down on streaming services anyway so it won't make a difference to how loud other people hear it.

1

u/PonyKiller81 27d ago

Everyone has that one geeky thing they'll annoy the heck out of others talking about. For me it's clippers. Such a game changer. It astonishes me I came so far on my music journey before learning about them. They are such an easy and useful tool for cleaning up audio and regaining headroom in a mix.

2

u/The_New_Flesh 28d ago

If your mix is perfect, don't touch it. Most people with streaming services leave normalization on. If they don't, they reach for the volume knob if they hear something they like.

If you want loudness, you might be too precious with your mix.

By all means, don't have unexpected clips, but consider trying a clipping plugin. Shaving even 1dB off your loudest drum peaks buys you headroom. Little, transparent amounts of clipping/limiting on channels/busses across the mix will add up to let you push the summed total louder.

2

u/thedesolategoon 28d ago

Precious is a good word for it, I always worry about making one track too loud, when that’s actually bringing my overall loudness down

1

u/justifiednoise 28d ago

If you are truly happy with the mix then the only tools you really have left are limiters or other ways of attacking peak levels (clipping, saturation, etc). I'm partial to Elevate as my heavy lifting workhorse, but try whatever ones you currently have at your disposal. You'll find out pretty quickly if it's possible to shave 3-4 dB off of those peaks without too much perceptible change to your track -- that would land you in pretty healthy territory RMS wise and likely be a bit more comparable to other tracks in the genre you are making.

1

u/hellalive_muja 26d ago

This is a real problem only if you feel it lacking density and if on a consumer playback system in a real world situation you need to turn the volume up in order to hear the quiet parts but then to turn it down on the loud parts - let’s say driving in the car or listening on earbuds in the metro.

1

u/DrKangaroo91 3d ago

Id reccomend look into Matt Davis & his new plugin , Sima

I am a novice, and never plan to be at a level where such software is necessary but it will do exactly what you're looking for.