Close to professional in ableton live 8

[bdfenn]

Trying to get as close as I can to a professional sounding cd. I've searched on youtube, and this site for info and can't find anything specific. I've been doing this for about a year, and now, for the first time I burned some tracks to cd. In that year i've gained some knowledge on compression, equalization, mixing and a little mastering. I read that mastering should be left to the pros though, so didn't get too involved with that. Anyway, after some layering, eqing, mixing and light compression I burned some tracks to cd with the following settings: normalize: off, file type: wav, sample rate: 44100, bit depth: 16, dither options: triangular. In my boom box I can barely hear it, in my car I can barely hear it. Don't expect to get that BIG club sound, but like I said trying to get close. Do I need more compression, some limiting or is it that Ableton isn't capable? I need some advice please!

[Southman]

Are you using a mastering audio effect rack on the master output?

[bdfenn]

I have eq eight and compressor on the master out. Should I invest in Ozone iZotope?

[THA_REAPER]

Ozone is primarily for mastering though. I would consider that a waste if you were not planning on learning mastering yourself. You don't really need Ozone to do mastering its suite of plugins combined into one, which you can do the same with a chain of plugins. If you have low mixes its probably a better thing if you were saving them to get mastered by a pro. When you mix do you have a desired amount of headroom you try to leave?

[bdfenn]

Ok, what plugins would you recommend to get a good quality - pre mastered - sounding product?
I have my tracks adjusted so they sit well in the mix as a whole. Then I have the master output at 0db.
Hope that answered your question. Bare with me. I still have a lot to learn.

[RedBeerd]

It's not necessarily about the plugins. It's how you use them that determines the final quality of your work.

Peace.

[SUB LEVEL MUSIC]

Your issue has nothing to do with Ableton or the plugins you choose to use. I would start by taking a step back and dieting from the search for the “magical plugin” because there is no such thing! You have to learn the craft first. Sound selection, programming and mixdowns are a vital part to getting your tracks sounding right. Mastering won’t make a poorly mixed track sound better, it will only enhance the errors from your mix. I haven’t heard any of your tracks but I’m going to assume there is probably work to be done in the mix. As for your loudness issue, you could just drop a limiter on the master and lower the threshold till you knock off about 3 db or so but again, that won’t solve your overall issue, its just a crutch.