Hi all,
I'd like to now if I'm doing anything wrong when I'm finalizing/bouncing a song. I'm using Mac and Logic 5.5 w/Emagic sound card. The final sounds are pretty nice and clear but, I noticed after burning it to a CD and when compared with other Pro recordings that my overall volume is not as high as the other CD's. So I tried to re-bounce it back busting the master volume a bit. Well, it worked on one hand but, it did more damage at the other, as expected the clipping was noticed and it resulted in some distortion when burned to a CD. My questions are:
1. Am I'm doing anything wrong here and if so please help.
2. Is there any technique or software that will bust the overall volume without creating distortion.
Thank you,
Toska

I use Logic 4.8 on a PC and what I usually end up doing is having some compression on each track, a BBE Sonic Maximizer on audio tracks, and sometimes a little compression and/or Sonic Maximizer on the master channel.

The BBE Sonic Maximizer can be bought for $125, or found if you're more resourceful.

You're running into compression and EQ problems. The digital domain is very unforgiving when it comes to clipping. You'll need some master compression for starters. This will tame down the peaks so you can turn the overall volume up further. The more compression, The louder the cd, but also the less dynamic range. You will have to decide how much dynamic range you will give up for a louder CD.
EQ is also a factor. Listen to commercial recording and compare them to yours. Do yours seem to have a lot more bass, or treble, or mids? If so, you have limited your perceived overall volume again because the overabundant frequency is putting your recording at top levels. If this frequency/frequencies were brought back some, you could bring the overall volume up.

Or maybe you have the opposite problem; I.E. most of the frequencies are correct, but a few are too low. Therefore, the sound is thinner and perceivably quieter because some of the spectrum is missing.

Hope that makes some sense to you.

Getting a tad bit of digital splatter aye? Ahh yes but a lovely sound isn't it! Sort of reminds me of my childhood, in search of special effect sounds I taped a chrystal lapel mic to the back hinge of a toilet seat one Thanksgiving. The mic actually did survive for a short while afterwards although it was never the same and not an antibactierial spray on the planet could save it from it's destiny. But hey, I was just a kid with a cassette recorder gathering some wild sound samples and discovering that women really do fart, and how. The AGC (Automatic Gain Control) in the recorder of course took the duty of proper analog sensitivity level (with the poorest transient response of about 400ms).
It's hard to be serious after looking back at the krazy stuff I've done.

Before we even talk about compression, we are burning from what format? If you said wav (and only wav!)then the answer is correct. You don't burn from any other format with the exception of raw data and I seriously doubt anyone has the equipment to do that plus at the fact that raw data compiling to burn to CD is way obsolete these days unless high security is involved.
I wont even take time to explain why other formats are no good other than the fact that you would be compressing a signal that has been expanded from a different form of compression and can therefore expect to have lousy results and that includes any recent formats that have been developed. Compression is compression just as a duck is a duck. They may have different shapes and colors but it's still a duck.period. Presuming we are using uncompressed wav files to start off with, the first step is normalization which balances the wav to a medial average of FROM 0dB downward AND FROM infinite negative upward. The results are a balanced signal. Then you normalize again but this time choosing a 0 offset which brings the overall balanced signal to as close as averaged possible to 0 volts averaged. From this point is where you add gain to -0.0001dB peaked at the signals loudest point. Once that cieling is established is when you deploy your noise reduction transformation ONE TIME ONLY to eliminate any hiss, grumble (rumble with defined beginning and ending established points), wow, and flutter (yeah I know....wow?, Wow! I didn't give it that name, blame the schmuck from the AES, not me (Audio Engineering Society). Take your "cleaned up" wav and get it's statistics to make sure that no gain was lost. now you have your cieling and floor levels established and it is time to properly compress your never in any way been compressed before in it's whole life, signal.
I will tell you right now that if you have done the above first, the amount of compression you will need (relative to the material you are dealing with) should be minimal if not possibly none. Yes it will hamper on the dynamics to the amount of allowance of "falloff" that you permit to it. the lower amount of falloff milliseconds you permit, the louder the signal will seem and the poorer the dynamic range it will have. This makes program material with quiet sections sound just horrible and greatly lessens any impact effects unless other special transformations are used along with it such as 'smart muting' which doesnot completly mute and also looks ahead at whats coming up in the way of signal voltage.once these steps are done to the wav, then that wav is ready for burning. If there are other wavs to be burned, if you go about the same steps they should be at the same level as the other and there wont be a need to average normalize them as one in order to have all the tracks at proper level. I mentioned that because sometimes it is unavoidable. This will give you results of excellent gain for the burn. for me, most times it is way louder than a store bought CD, and so in order to have it about the same level I just compress much less and sometimes but not often, even normalize with a lesser than peak value. Lastly, if none of this really makes any sense to you, then don't worry about it. Youre not alone. Most people don't understand what the hell I'm doing either and at times, that occasionally even includes myself. I don't question myself about what I'm doing to the wav if it sounds better. It's just instinct. I have a hard enough time just trying to remember what it was that I did just so I can use the method again the next time.When the whole proccess becomes a real long tour, I will include a logged script along with the material should it ever need to be remastered.

Edit point> I should also mention that when I talk to other technical folks like this at the dinner table, my wife hates it

[This message has been edited by Morphamatik (edited 01-26-2003).]