When burning a song to CD it is necessary to combine all tracks down to two tracks in a process called mixdown. The Mastering Room is designed to make mixdown as painless as possible. The final mixdown is the audio that get burns to CD. In order to have a loud CD, you have to have a loud mixdown. Here are a few helpful hints to getting a loud mixdown.
1. UNDERSTANDING THE TRACK MIXER
With the FADER/MUTE button in "TR", the faders are controlling the playback levels of audio already recorded. This is the level of the tracks as they relate to each other and in the master/monitor buss. Basically, the level that is listened to through speakers or headphones.
2. USING THE MASTERING TOOL KIT
The Mastering Tool Kit is a powerful effect that combines a parametric EQ, three-band compressor, limiter, enhancer and more. It's designed to help give a balanced feel to the mix and can help reduce the transient peaks(spikes) to get the overall mix level higher. The MTK effects start at patch number P210 in the VS8F-2 card and can be inserted in the Mastering Room. Each song is going to be unique in the frequencies it produces, so try out the different patches to find the best one for your mix.
3. MASTERING ROOM OUTPUT LEVEL
There is an output level meter in the Mastering Room. The level in this meter is the final mixdown level. This level should be as close to 0 db as possible without distorting. To adjust this level, raise or lower the Master fader. If inserting an MTK effect, the effect may initially bring down the output level, raise the Master fader to compensate.
1. UNDERSTANDING THE TRACK MIXER
With the FADER/MUTE button in "TR", the faders are controlling the playback levels of audio already recorded. This is the level of the tracks as they relate to each other and in the master/monitor buss. Basically, the level that is listened to through speakers or headphones.
2. USING THE MASTERING TOOL KIT
The Mastering Tool Kit is a powerful effect that combines a parametric EQ, three-band compressor, limiter, enhancer and more. It's designed to help give a balanced feel to the mix and can help reduce the transient peaks(spikes) to get the overall mix level higher. The MTK effects start at patch number P210 in the VS8F-2 card and can be inserted in the Mastering Room. Each song is going to be unique in the frequencies it produces, so try out the different patches to find the best one for your mix.
3. MASTERING ROOM OUTPUT LEVEL
There is an output level meter in the Mastering Room. The level in this meter is the final mixdown level. This level should be as close to 0 db as possible without distorting. To adjust this level, raise or lower the Master fader. If inserting an MTK effect, the effect may initially bring down the output level, raise the Master fader to compensate.