Hello. I have been making music (Hip-Hop) since around 2008 for fun, but I have always been irritated at the fact that my "mastered" 0db songs always sound lower than commercial songs you hear on CD's, radio, etc.
Note: I don't ever have access to the breakdowns of instrumentals to manually adjust each piece. I only have .mp3 fully-made instrumentals.
My routine is: Open a fresh session. Import the instrumental and set it to around -3.5db, since my vocals are hard limited to -4 in my bus. For whatever reason, though, it always seems like my vocals are still much louder than the instrumental. I can never find a perfect balance. My input db level when I record, I believe, is around a max of -1db? Then limited to a max of -4. My vocals always either sound too high or too low, depending on the song.
Below are two photos. The first is showing the multi-track view of how all of my songs look when I make them (shows db levels). The second shows my bus settings/effects.
https://i.imgur.com/RthzO3s.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zDK8pPU.jpg
You can also hear the final song below:
*Warning: very explicit
You Deserve [Prod. by Danson of Shadowville.com] by BVK (Branden) | Free Listening on SoundCloud
My process after I combine all the multi-track files together to make the final song file, I usually Normalize it to -0.1db since I figure that ensures nothing hits 0db or above.
Yes, I still use the extremely old Cool Edit Pro.
I've tried Audition and some others and I'm just most comfortable with Cool Edit.
Any help and advice regarding the mixing/mastering is HUGELY appreciated! I would love to know the 'correct' process of it.
What am I doing wrong?
Note: I don't ever have access to the breakdowns of instrumentals to manually adjust each piece. I only have .mp3 fully-made instrumentals.
My routine is: Open a fresh session. Import the instrumental and set it to around -3.5db, since my vocals are hard limited to -4 in my bus. For whatever reason, though, it always seems like my vocals are still much louder than the instrumental. I can never find a perfect balance. My input db level when I record, I believe, is around a max of -1db? Then limited to a max of -4. My vocals always either sound too high or too low, depending on the song.
Below are two photos. The first is showing the multi-track view of how all of my songs look when I make them (shows db levels). The second shows my bus settings/effects.
https://i.imgur.com/RthzO3s.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zDK8pPU.jpg
You can also hear the final song below:
*Warning: very explicit
You Deserve [Prod. by Danson of Shadowville.com] by BVK (Branden) | Free Listening on SoundCloud
My process after I combine all the multi-track files together to make the final song file, I usually Normalize it to -0.1db since I figure that ensures nothing hits 0db or above.
Yes, I still use the extremely old Cool Edit Pro.
I've tried Audition and some others and I'm just most comfortable with Cool Edit.
Any help and advice regarding the mixing/mastering is HUGELY appreciated! I would love to know the 'correct' process of it.
What am I doing wrong?
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