Without fail. I'm not sure how to fix this... Trying to make it louder just ends up sounding worse. Suggestions?
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my bass is quieting the rest of the track?
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Here's a great article about how a good arrangement, at the beginning of your songwriting process, will help you get a good mix and loud master at the end: (link is only visible to registered users)
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Here's another article about achieving loudness that I found useful: (link is only visible to registered users)
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I agree with André. The problem is that due to the lack of specific mastering tools (like a look-ahead compressor and a proper limiter), it is hard to control the crest factor (difference between peaks and rms level) of your waveforms in Audiotool. As you increase the level, the peaks clip much before the RMS level has achieved a satisfying volume. But I also completely agree with him that loudness is more than just mastering. It actually starts with the arrangement, writing parts where powerful instruments like kicks and bass don't compete. Here's one of the best videos I've found that talks in depth about achieving loudness: (link is only visible to registered users)
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Try eqing unwanted frequencies and peaks. You might not notice or hear it beforehand (hence the need for visual aids), but once you find and cut those frequencies, you'll find that you can crank up the volume more than you could otherwise. This is because sometimes particular frequencies are louder than others and, as such, drown them out, making your mix quieter and muddier
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attack and release on a compressor are kind of complicated to get your head around, but for a general rule of thumb:
short attack + short decay = less punchy
long attack + long decay = more punchy
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Once I try it I'll post an update here.
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Try what I explained, if it doesn't work, feel free to invite me to the track and I can mix&master for you
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Also, there could be a slight possibility that your mixing could be causing this issue.
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Also, I have realized that having the release shorter does not make it louder, but actually punchier.
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Hopefully my explanation is okay.
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The main goal of mastering is to get your track as loud as possible without unpleasantness (clipping, muddiness, basically any bad sounding error in the mix).
Clipping is when an audio signal attempts to put out a current beyond the maximum capability, (In music, this maximum capability is specifically 0dB.) resulting in unpleasant amplification of the sound.
When you are mastering a track, you are mainly focusing on getting it as loud as possible, without resulting in that amplification, so we would like to peak the master at this 0dB. (The limiter does this, but we will return to that later.) The audiotool's compressor is not as efficient and useful as we would like it to be, but there is still a Peak option. On the compressor, we would like the threshold all the way up, along with the ratio. We will use this peak setting (instead of RMS.) Here is where things get kind of "mess with it until it's how you want it" and also complicated.
From using FabFilter Pro L (a mastering plugin for other DAWs) I think that the longer the attack is, the louder. Also, the shorter the release is, the louder it is. [[[ I may be incorrect, so correct me if I'm wrong ]]] (I haven't really used it in a while so I'm just going by memory.) But where the main focus is, is the gain knob. Turn it up until it's loud but not amplifying the sound. Also, on the master output, you would like the master volume all the way up, and of course the limiter on. This should keep all the sounds at 0dB and not tipping over to result in the amplification.
gain stage first then use the mixing board. Common mistake