cyanjay
I suspect this is less of a technical VDJ issues and more of a beginner DJ issue, so looking for some guidance from the more experienced in the crowd!
I keep an eye on the meters on my FLX4 and use the gain knobs to adjust so that all tracks are full yellow with occasional light tapping into the red, but I notice regardless sometimes when I mix music in there is a huge disparity in volume between two tracks that look identical on the meters. This is especially apparent when I'm mixing in 50-70 year old music to a track that was made in the last decade or two. I was wondering what's up with this, and how to compensate for this? If I turn up the gain more on quiet tracks it ends up redlining. Ideally I don't want to damage my equipment, and 90% of my tracks sound just fine so I don't necessarily want to turn down the gain history on every single track in my library on the off chance I'm trying to mix in an older song.
I keep an eye on the meters on my FLX4 and use the gain knobs to adjust so that all tracks are full yellow with occasional light tapping into the red, but I notice regardless sometimes when I mix music in there is a huge disparity in volume between two tracks that look identical on the meters. This is especially apparent when I'm mixing in 50-70 year old music to a track that was made in the last decade or two. I was wondering what's up with this, and how to compensate for this? If I turn up the gain more on quiet tracks it ends up redlining. Ideally I don't want to damage my equipment, and 90% of my tracks sound just fine so I don't necessarily want to turn down the gain history on every single track in my library on the off chance I'm trying to mix in an older song.
geposted Fri 12 Jul 24 @ 10:11 pm
locoDog
How it is, tracks had more dynamic range back in the day, these days tracks are compressed to bump up the perceived loudness [at the expense of dynamics]
You could run a maximizer effect on the old tracks.
loudmax is an free entry point to this kind of vst.
You could run a maximizer effect on the old tracks.
loudmax is an free entry point to this kind of vst.
geposted Fri 12 Jul 24 @ 10:34 pm
groovindj
Yes the differences in dynamic range between old and new tracks is a big part of it, as well as changes over the decades in instruments used, studio technology, frequency range, balance between instruments in the mix and so on.
Loudness wars -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
Tracks in the 60s for example would have been mastered to sound good on vinyl, which has limitations in both the low and high frequencies, and balanced for listening on a typical household record player.
Now tracks are mastered to sound good when streamed and listened to on wireless ear buds and bluetooth speakers.
It's easier to make an old track sound modern than the other way around, by using EQ, rebalancing with stem separation, and adding more compression and limiting.
Loudness wars -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
Tracks in the 60s for example would have been mastered to sound good on vinyl, which has limitations in both the low and high frequencies, and balanced for listening on a typical household record player.
Now tracks are mastered to sound good when streamed and listened to on wireless ear buds and bluetooth speakers.
It's easier to make an old track sound modern than the other way around, by using EQ, rebalancing with stem separation, and adding more compression and limiting.
geposted Sat 13 Jul 24 @ 8:18 am
cyanjay
Ah, thanks for the info both of you! I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction to fix these problems :)
geposted Sat 13 Jul 24 @ 11:18 pm
groovindj
A possible "one stop" solution for you is a program called Platinum Notes.
https://mixedinkey.com/platinum-notes/
You can bulk process any tracks you feel need a little help.
https://mixedinkey.com/platinum-notes/
You can bulk process any tracks you feel need a little help.
geposted Sun 14 Jul 24 @ 2:30 pm