LinuxMusicians

Hi all. I have done the recording using Ardour for guitar and bass portions. I use the meter to get the sound to about -3 or 2. But when I play the song in my car or in stereo it doesn't appear to have the same volume or fill that stuff on the radio does. When I turn up the Master mix it usually clips. Is there a way get your recordings to really fill the speakers. I record the guitar tracks in Mono as I was told and the vocals in Stereo. I am using the Sapphire Pro interface which provides for good sound.

This is really a producing/recording engineering question but what you are talking about is loudness. I'm pretty much a newb at these things but I'm pretty good with Google and this tutorial is well recommended on the subject http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar12/a ... udness.htm. If nothing else it can give you some ideas for your own searching of the web.

aeb105 wrote:Hi all. I have done the recording using Ardour for guitar and bass portions. I use the meter to get the sound to about -3 or 2. But when I play the song in my car or in stereo it doesn't appear to have the same volume or fill that stuff on the radio does. When I turn up the Master mix it usually clips. Is there a way get your recordings to really fill the speakers. I record the guitar tracks in Mono as I was told and the vocals in Stereo. I am using the Sapphire Pro interface which provides for good sound.

Record all tracks in mono, except for stereo pairs (like an X/Y drum overheads). Although I record those in mono (2 mono tracks) usually, anyway (which is a habit leftover from recording analog).

Is it loudness you want? Is that what you mean by "fill the speakers"?

If youre trying to get your mixes to sound like the CDs you buy, I don't think you are going to be able to do that easily. Particularly if your mixes are not mastered.

It sounds too low. I push it almost too clipping like instructions say stay just below -1. I then usually crank the Master track all the way up which makes the mix clip. When I get into my car the volume is already low compared to the radio or other cds. So is that something Mastering will do for me. Boost the volume without making it clip??? And if I were to use JAMin to master the song, would I have to record it again?

Mastering typically raises the perceived volume of the material, in addition to doing some other things. So if it is volume you want, sure, a tool like Jamin will do that. It has a 3-band, multi-band compressor in it, an EQ, and the ability to add harmonics.

But if you don't know how to use a tool like Jamin, you will probably do more harm than good to your mix.

Can I use Jamin on already recorded tracks? Would I just export the mix I have now to a WAV and import to JAMin?

aeb105 wrote:Can I use Jamin on already recorded tracks? Would I just export the mix I have now to a WAV and import to JAMin?

Yes, you can use Jamin on already recorded tracks. Since it is essentially a mastering tool, it is often used on already mixed stereo tracks. I import the track I want to master into a new session, then patch Jamin into a stereo insert on the master bus (using JACK), and then go to work.

I have tried to open Ardour exported .wav 's of my mixed tracks and it doesn't see them in JAMin when I go to open nothing shows up. Is there a certain file I need to pull from Ardour? Like a special session file instead of the .wav?

Ricardus wrote: But if you don't know how to use a tool like Jamin, you will probably do more harm than good to your mix.

Does any one know of a good Jamin tutorial?

aeb105 wrote:I have tried to open Ardour exported .wav 's of my mixed tracks and it doesn't see them in JAMin when I go to open nothing shows up. Is there a certain file I need to pull from Ardour? Like a special session file instead of the .wav?

Jamin is NOT a standalone app that can import audio on its own. It is a JACK app that you need to patch into another JACK aware app that CAN import and play audio files. Like ardour.

So you create a new session with Ardour, import the stereo mix into ardour, and you need to create an insert on the master bus and patch in Jamin. Then you use it kinda like a plugin.

English Guy wrote:

Ricardus wrote: But if you don't know how to use a tool like Jamin, you will probably do more harm than good to your mix.

Does any one know of a good Jamin tutorial?

Search for some mastering tutorials. I have seen a ton of them on the tube of you. The programs will be a little different, but they are all essentially the same... ie they have multi-band compressions, and EQ built in.

English Guy wrote:

Ricardus wrote: But if you don't know how to use a tool like Jamin, you will probably do more harm than good to your mix.

Does any one know of a good Jamin tutorial?

http://jamin.sourceforge.net/en/tutorial.html


BUT, Jamin isn't realy neccessary

aeb105 wrote:It sounds too low. I push it almost too clipping like instructions say stay just below -1. I then usually crank the Master track all the way up which makes the mix clip. When I get into my car the volume is already low compared to the radio or other cds. So is that something Mastering will do for me. Boost the volume without making it clip??? And if I were to use JAMin to master the song, would I have to record it again?

a compressor is what you want, perhaps a limiter, too (if badly recorded)

Capoeira wrote:a compressor is what you want, perhaps a limiter, too (if badly recorded)

Jamin has both of those, plus an EQ.

Have you checked for any DC offset?