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I never use to have this problem before but now I can't even get songs anywhere close to radio level without it COMPLETELY distorting.
I'm using Izotope Ozone 7 for mastering.
Any tips?
Hi my friend. Part of making it loud is knowing how to release some of that pressure that is building up as you are making it louder. If you take the whole mix stereo track and maximize its loudness a lot with some limiter like the one you are using, then chances are it cannot cope with that much limiting without distorting.
Working with the dynamics of a mix involves handling it end-to-end, meaning all the way from arranging all the way to the final master. You cannot skip it and then in the final stages of mastering push the loudness up a lot with a limiter. It cannot sound good like this, because the limiter basically eats up the signal at random frequencies until it distorts.
Instead, what you should do is already when you arrange, produce an arrangement with short and long term dynamics in mind. So for instance you might want a slow compressor release on an electric guitar but now this has to integrate with the rest so that you get a good dynamic footprint in the recording. This means you can totally mess up things already during the arrange stage and have a hard time with the dynamics later on.
Therefore often times it is really the session players that know how to express themselves dynamically for the track to come out great sounding and when not the producer should ensure it.
In other words, good dynamics is something you build from start to end, when so you can easily match radio level loudness with a good sounding result.
Also keep in mind that it is to some degree the size of elements in the mix that contributes to the perceived loudness. If your long term dynamics are such that all elements in the mix are small, then it is not going to sound that great when you maximize it. It also does not sound that great when a few sound sources play over all other sound sources.
So you simply need to work yourself up to good dynamics by understanding how to put it all together. But this can be something an engineer can be very unaware of how it comes together and how it works. With some experience you are learning how to distribute your dynamics work and integrate it with your overall production workflow. It is a feeling of coming home when you finally master the art of dynamics processing.
Also, do not underestimate the importance of having the right hardware and monitoring situation for the job.
All of these factors (and more) play a role in getting good quality at some desired loudness level.