Finished/mastered mixes very quiet?

[Erikdavid5000]

Tracked a second song now, all tracks well out of the red and L/R peaking at 12 or just below and the finished master is still really really quiet.

 

[-mjk-]

Turn up the limiter in the mastering section. You need to add gain to the mix.

 

[Erikdavid5000]

Forgive the naive question but I’m new to the machine? Is the limiter found in the EQ or compression tabs in Mastering?

 

[-mjk-]

It's the compression tab. That's not a naïve question at all because it doesn't say "Limiter" it says "Compression." A limiter is a type of compressor.

Go through all the presets. Do not pay any attention to the names. Sometimes, a user will think "Oh, I can't use a hip-hop preset on my acoustic folk song!" but that's not true. Those are just names, so go through each preset and see which one comes as close as possible to the sound you are looking for. Almost always, you will want a multiband compressor or limiter. Once you settle on a preset, make sure the Makeup gain is ON. Make small moves. 1 or 2 dB is a lot in Mastering.

One drawback of the Mastering section is that you have to manually turn off the EQ and Compression when listening to the finished Mastered track or else it will double-process. Make small adjustments based on your ears and redo the Mastering operation. Rinse and repeat until you get what you want. If it's not loud enough (use the meters) then add more gain.

With the mulitband compressor, the gain controls affect each band individually. So they act as a spectral adjustment. Adding or reducing the gain in a band will also increase or decrease the energy in that band. If you need more midrange, you can touch up the midrange band gain.

Don't go nuts on it though. In Mastering a little goes a long way. You should already have a good sounding mix to begin with. Mastering is a subtle polishing operation that give you a deliverable product. It's not supposed to fix a poor mix.

 

[Erikdavid5000]

Thank you so much for the detailed response. And yes, I was absolutely avoiding the “classical” and “pop” presents in mastering, lol.

 

[-mjk-]

Some rock tunes sound awesome with an EQ curve that was designed for Classical or Jazz music. You wouldn't be the only one avoiding those presets!

 

[urbie4]

I just checked out the manual more in depth and I was missing a crucial final step.

After applying my mastering settings, I need to press record AGAIN in master mode which then applies the effects.

I was so disappointed to listen to a mix I had just done only for it to sound exactly the same as my previous mixes. I feel like a jackass but I am also very excited to really hear how the compressors and normalization actually effect my mix.

Thanks again for the help!

Exactly the same problem -- exactly the same solution. Thanks!

I'm a software technical writer by day, and I have to say, I would FIRE the writer responsible for the DP-24 manual -- it leaves out all sorts of essential things, such as the ones we ask about all the time. But if that weren't the case, Phil wouldn't be as popular!