Dear Anyone.
Hope this all makes sense, it's just I'm totally confused. I've got Asperger's, which doesn't help! In me, it means I lurve having a list I can just follow, I agree in mixing that doesn't always happen, but anyway.
So I'm mixing a piece of music. As far as loudness levels go, I've got Volume, Compression, Gain (I know Gain and Volume aren't the same thing, Gain's going in, Volume's coming out but bear with me for a paragraph!) and Limiting. As far as I know, and I'm very much a beginner, if a sound's too quiet you could use any of those to make it louder.
How do you know when to use which and why? I mean I could - in theory - not turn it up, just slam a load of compression on it to make it louder. Or turn it up and use less compression. I slap a limiter on the out buss and it sounds louder - but my waveforms are always TINY - wiggles in cotton.
I use a limiter on the outbuss called Frontier. It's got 2 main knobs, one called Threshold, one called Output Volume. If I set Threshold so the output waveform looks as sausagelike as my comparison track, my track's far too ridiculously loud. But if I turn down the individual instrument volumes within the track to allow for that, I'm back to wiggle-in-cotton waveform again! And I can use EITHER knob on Frontier to make things louder, when do I use which and why?
I'm not sure if the sequence of events I'm asking to be told about is Gain Staging or not because - sorry - I've never really understood what Gain Staging IS! Please, could someone help this Asperger's idiot by saying when to use which volume control - I know no list would apply in ALL circumstances. but just so I've got SOME idea of when to use which in order to get a nice, sausage waveform coming out of my DAW WITHOUT everything sounding ridiculously over-loud. I've seen many sausage waveforms with quiet, even distant sounds in them and had zero idea how they achieved it. I've been writing music for years and I've never been able to get a not-overloud sausage waveform on anything - mine are all wiggles in cotton!
So what sequence do I use them all in? Do I start off with MIDI volume (CC7) and THEN add compression (not forgetting the MIDI volume can go up to 127 so would I NEED compression?) And there's things like saturation which make things louder - but if I'd gotten the MIDI volume levels right, would I need it....
See what I mean, I'm just totally confused. Could anyone help me make sense of it all so I can get nice rich sausages, not skinny cotton wiggles? I mean the cotton wiggles sound as LOUD as the sausages but not as FULL.
Yours hopefully,
Chris.
Hope this all makes sense, it's just I'm totally confused. I've got Asperger's, which doesn't help! In me, it means I lurve having a list I can just follow, I agree in mixing that doesn't always happen, but anyway.
So I'm mixing a piece of music. As far as loudness levels go, I've got Volume, Compression, Gain (I know Gain and Volume aren't the same thing, Gain's going in, Volume's coming out but bear with me for a paragraph!) and Limiting. As far as I know, and I'm very much a beginner, if a sound's too quiet you could use any of those to make it louder.
How do you know when to use which and why? I mean I could - in theory - not turn it up, just slam a load of compression on it to make it louder. Or turn it up and use less compression. I slap a limiter on the out buss and it sounds louder - but my waveforms are always TINY - wiggles in cotton.
I use a limiter on the outbuss called Frontier. It's got 2 main knobs, one called Threshold, one called Output Volume. If I set Threshold so the output waveform looks as sausagelike as my comparison track, my track's far too ridiculously loud. But if I turn down the individual instrument volumes within the track to allow for that, I'm back to wiggle-in-cotton waveform again! And I can use EITHER knob on Frontier to make things louder, when do I use which and why?
I'm not sure if the sequence of events I'm asking to be told about is Gain Staging or not because - sorry - I've never really understood what Gain Staging IS! Please, could someone help this Asperger's idiot by saying when to use which volume control - I know no list would apply in ALL circumstances. but just so I've got SOME idea of when to use which in order to get a nice, sausage waveform coming out of my DAW WITHOUT everything sounding ridiculously over-loud. I've seen many sausage waveforms with quiet, even distant sounds in them and had zero idea how they achieved it. I've been writing music for years and I've never been able to get a not-overloud sausage waveform on anything - mine are all wiggles in cotton!
So what sequence do I use them all in? Do I start off with MIDI volume (CC7) and THEN add compression (not forgetting the MIDI volume can go up to 127 so would I NEED compression?) And there's things like saturation which make things louder - but if I'd gotten the MIDI volume levels right, would I need it....
See what I mean, I'm just totally confused. Could anyone help me make sense of it all so I can get nice rich sausages, not skinny cotton wiggles? I mean the cotton wiggles sound as LOUD as the sausages but not as FULL.
Yours hopefully,
Chris.
Statistics: Posted by ulrichburke — Mon Sep 02, 2024 9:48 pm — Replies 2 — Views 46