The great thing is there are industry standards arising that tell all mixing and mastering engineers to aim for the same levels. It’s one thing to say “Let’s boost all the volumes and level them so they match.” It’s another to do it, because you need a target to aim at or you’ll end up doing more harm than good. And that’s what we’re here to talk about today…Īnd you thought the preamble was over! Nope, there’s one thing you need to have in your head before you start or you’ll wander aimlessly. But it’s okay, because it’s the same consistent problem across the board and those can be dealt with by the listener in a lot of ways.īut what they can’t do is go back in time and slap you for not leveling your songs to the same average volume levels. All of your vocals might be in dire need of de-essing. See, the human ears and mind will overlook a lot of other issues as long as those issues are consistent.Īll of your mixes can have the same glaring bass problem in the low-end. Before you worry about the quality of the tracking, the clarity and balance of the mixing, or even the color of Sharpie you used to write on the burnt disc… This is the quintessential issue to solve before you ever share your recordings with anyone else.

Then when they forget to turn it back down and destroy their subwoofers and ear drums, guess who they’re going to blame? Not the current song, but the one that made them reach for the volume knob in the first place. The number one thing that screams “amateur recording” to even the most casual music listener is popping in a CD or loading up some MP3’s and having to crank up the volume twice or even three times as far as commercial music.

Mixpad recording