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Commercially released CD's are
almost always
louder than "project" studio CD's
because they
are professionally mastered. Professional mastering
engineers are prized for their ears, high-end equipment
and knowledge of sound. Mastering engineers normally
use a mix of compression, EQ, and other sweetening
processes. With the right tools and careful listening
you can achieve very similar results. Loudness maximizers
and compressors such as the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer
and Renaissance Compressor such are useful in giving
your audio that extra boost.
There are several steps you
can take to make your CD's louder. If you're recording
the source material yourself, make sure your average
input level is reading around -6dBFS you are going
to need headroom for EQ and compression. If you're
dealing with pre-recorded material, you can increase
or decrease the gain until the file peaks are just
around -6DBFS. To increase perceived loudness, you
will need to use careful compression and a "look-ahead" limiter.
A compressor/limiter is an essential link, which
enables you to squish the dynamic range so that
the loudest peaks of the audio file are proportionally
closer in volume to the average volume of the material;
then you can boost the gain of the entire file and
use the limiter to avoid clipping while maxing out
the system.
You can find GAIN, NORMALIZATION,
EQ, COMPRESSION, and LIMITING functions in software
plug-ins, standalone application form, and in hardware.
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