I need advice

[usbdonglegoblin]

Hi,
I'm running LMMS on ArtistX and I've been using it for months now. I have made a total of six songs which I'm pleased with, but I'm having trouble with the
audio levels on the instruments I'm using. Any guidance or feedback would be welcome. You can view my songs at:

http://mstein.freeshell.org/tunes.html

One word of warning you need support of HTML5 and OGG files to listen.

[Sti-Jay]

You think the volume is low? Is that what you mean with audio levels on the instruments?

[usbdonglegoblin]

Some of the songs are louder than others, and on many of the songs the guitar and drums are quiet in comparison to the bass. I have problems getting the levels on individual instruments to mix well with the rest. I am new rather new to LMMS, just about a year of trial and error, so any advice on these issues would be helpful, even if it is just a link to the wiki ( which I should read more of anyway ).

[Sti-Jay]

I guess you know that you can turn the Master volume up in the FX-mixer!

What you have discovered is the art of Mastering. How can my songs get loud and clear, without clipping? Clipping means when the FX-mixer bar go all up to red and you hear distortion. That is a hard question to answer and it takes years to become really good.
https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/lmms ... ering#p364

Before mastering your song, you got to mix it. As I have understood it, mixing means adjusting the volume and sound of your instruments. Usually the drums peak (cause distortion), and you can sometimes turn the drum volume down 20% without hearing much of a difference. This also applies to the dark tones such as the bass. Adding the spectrum analyzer to the master channel will let you see which frequencies have a high volume, and you can then turn down those frequencies down by adjusting the instruments or by adding an equalizer (eq). By thinking about getting high volume when mixing, you can get real bright and clear songs.

It is all about pushing the volume and indicator up just below the red area.

This guy know a lot about mastering and mixing, but he doesn´t seem to know the difference between them?
https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/lmms ... xing#p2320
https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/lmms ... ring#p2297

[limmes]

I use to run a demo studio many moons ago. In analog (tape) recording you push the levels "to lick the red". In digital recording you don't want to do that. I keep all levels between -3 and -6 db. Everything is lowered, but "in relation" to everything else. In LMMS, AudioFileProcessor you can increase the amplitude of the soundwave; in the box above the keyboard in the general settings. I find this works best. Then adjust volume levels as necessary.
Oh, and don't compress anything until the end, which is another difference between digital and analog.

[Sti-Jay]

It is all about pushing the volume and indicator up just below the red area.

yeah. This is called the loudness war, and basically it ruins your song more than benefit it, but somehow you got to learn