Reason Query

[rob_one]

I've got a beat. Just finished making it and now doing the mixing and listening to it on different systems.

I want to make it louder. Everytime I raise it to an acceptable loudness level it clips like a motherf***er. I can only compensate so much by lowering instruments in the mix.

Things like my drum crispness and sample warmth are fine. It's just the damn levels.

Is there a trick to rectify this? I've heard about pa**ing the mixer output through a compressor but I've always got a kind of clinical sound out of this, which is not what I want...

Can anyone help?

[Bondizzo]

my reason tracks also come out low, I normally just turn up the main volume to 110 or so. I haven't experimented with limiters or compressors yet

[rob_one]

There must be a reason (snigger) for this. Any Reason track is going to have a lot of complex instruments in it, so there must be some facility in the program for ensuring crisp loudness.

[Bondizzo]

I think we should take a look on the actual reason forum and learn how to master reason tracks. I'm coming out of retirement and will be making beats again. lets hear the beat you just made, give us a sample

[rob_one]

I'll upload a snippet later.

The reason forums that I've been too seem mum on this topic, sadly. I'll have another look.

[kingdavid]

check yo soundcard levels

if shit dont work
just export in boos in wavelab with puncher

[rob_one]

Soundcard levels are fine. That list shit you said...whowhuwha? Bleh?

I went back to the forums and there is an interesting technique:
http://www.reasonfreaks.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=3834&highlight=loudness+vol+volume&sid=478953e848412fe87600c2bf609b97df

Can anyone confirm this?

[The CHEF]

There must be a reason (snigger) for this. Any Reason track is going to have a lot of complex instruments in it, so there must be some facility in the program for ensuring crisp loudness.

Try minimizing your main volume as possible....

Oh, but wait....let me start off....

1. to make sure your track does not clip, start by playing with the individual sounds or tracks, get them as high as you can, but frequencies should not clash - by avoiding clashing, try panning your sounds...eg. windsounds (trombone&trumpet), highs(open hats&closed hats)...and so on. The difficult one should be your kick/ba**drum that falls in the same frequency as the ba** guitar. Here, make sure that your drums are compressed after you managed to get them to a satisfactory state with your ba** guitar. PS: you really want that guitar to sound, so this is one useful way.

2. Is your mix still clipping, now play with your master and increase slowly channels that had their sound faded.

I know this may take a while and practice, but after a while you'll understand why...all thanx to my mentor and best friend GADGET BOI  ...who showed me stuff and I just learn the ropes myself!

Tell me if it works and if it does not PM me all events.

[rob_one]

Cheers Trompie

[The CHEF]

Cheers Trompie

Sorry for my late response, but I see that the thread you had, had something similar!

[King Genius]

word up rob_one & the resta the fam.

Reason is meant for making music, more to the creative side of things, not really anything else to do with the technical part of sound. It has compressors & stuff, which you should use mildy. but depending on what you are using the song for, there are different approcahes (in my humble OPINION). Many ways to kill a cat, or skin a cow, wateva.

Yeah...
if its not anything serious, just a beat for the fellas to kick a free to, use the M_Cla** suite. It'll do the job, loud as u want as long as u dont clip. The compressor and maximizer will be your best friends here.

Next level, if your mixing is tight enough within reason, export it as a stereo track with very light compression or none at all, and definately no limiter. Put it on your DAW and use a nice multiband compressor and a limiter.

Then for pro level stuff, export each track seperately, import into you DAW and mix, compress gently, and send it to a mastering engineer.

hope that helps. good luck

and P.S, as trompie said "I know this may take a while and practice,"

Couldnt have said it better, you will get better after every mix, every day, for as long as you do it. Im still on the way, & will get there, when i look back at my first tracks on fruityloops3, i laugh.
Much luv!

[Hip Hop Fan]

just a few tips i found

1. Master at a low volume. Ever notice that songs sound better when played loudly? A truly well mastered song will sound great at any volume. If you master at a high volume, your tracks are likely to sound quite a bit different when played low, and in a bad way; but a song mastered at a low volume will still sound great loud. This is due to the way the sound waves reverberate around a given environment, and how our ears process that sound--but avoiding all the tech-talk, in short you'll get better sounding tracks and less damage to your ears by running your monitors at a low volume.

2. Make sure you're getting a consistent sound for each song. You'll want to check to make sure their levels are similar, and use compression or amplification if a particular song is far too quiet or loud. Make sure the equalization is consistent and that your listeners won't have to fiddle with treble and ba** knobs in their cars and home stereos when listening to your project.

3. EQ carefully. You don't want to ruin the mix of a song with a ton of EQ, and if the project you're working on was recorded correctly, you really shouldn't have to do too much equalization in the first place.

[rob_one]

Funny someone should bump this today...

This morning I nailed the motherf***er. Sat down on the floor in front of my speakers and just tweaked, tweaked, tweaked.

I was really happy with my mix (everything was Goldilocks) and I just needed to make it louder. I wasn't using the full MCla** suite, just the compressor and EQ, and I didn't want to use them too much.

Added a maximizer into the mix (on top of Scream on Tape setting) and suddenly BAM! I can pump that motherf***er nice and loud, and that red clipping light stays blank. Now all I have to do is record the vocals...which will probably entail remixing the entire track anyway, but f*** it! I did it. Thanks for the help guys!

[The CHEF]

Like I once mentioned somewhere....being patient and practicing sure does help, I congratulate you on your success.

[Makhi The Heart Beat]

and that red clipping light stays blank.

in the future ma nig, in order to maintain no clipping, you would wanna enable soft clipping on the maximizer and decrease ur values to less that 20 on the soft clip nob.


REASON IS A GOD