Volume levels

Tangled Wires · August 18, 2008, 05:12:05 PM

Prior to bouncing my 4 tracks to 2, i set all the track volume levels etc to get the right level of sound for the song.

However, once I bounced this and played this back I am sure that the lead guitar for example was quieter on the bounced version than on my original. I have adjusted the levels on the bounced track to get this to where I want it, but wondered if I may have done something wrong.

I had assumed that the settings of each track would be transfered over on the bounced track?

SteveG · August 18, 2008, 05:41:52 PM

The level settings should transfer as you say. You panned the tracks before bouncing, and bounced to a pair of tracks then panned them right out?
Try it again, and mix the guitar a tad higher, or you can add guitar from the original take, panned at the same point, to make it fuller and louder.

64Guitars · August 18, 2008, 06:11:06 PM

When you're listening to the bounced tracks, are you sure that's all you're listening to? In other words, make sure that the other two tracks are set to empty v-tracks or their levels are reduced to minimum.

For example, consider the following hypothetical recording session:

You record the following tracks on v-track 1:

Tr1v1: Rhythm guitar
Tr2v1: Vocals
Tr3v1: Bass guitar
Tr4v1: Lead guitar

Now you bounce these four v-tracks to Tr3v2 and Tr4v2. The BR should automatically set tracks 1 and 2 to the next empty v-track. But let's assume that you wanted to check out your original tracks for some reason and set tracks 1 and 2 back to v-track 1. When you press [PLAY], you'll hear a mix of the following v-tracks:

Tr1v1: Rhythm guitar
Tr2v1: Vocals
Tr3v2: Stereo mix (left channel) of Rhythm guitar, Vocals, Bass, and Lead guitar.
Tr4v2: Stereo mix (right channel) of Rhythm guitar, Vocals, Bass, and Lead guitar.

The rhythm guitar and vocals will sound much louder than the lead guitar and bass because they are doubled -- you've got rhythm guitar from the stereo mix on tracks 3 and 4 as well as from the original recording on track 1. Likewise, you've got the vocals from the stereo mix on tracks 3 and 4 plus the original vocals on track 2. Since the rhythm guitar and vocals are doubled but the bass and lead guitar are not, the latter will seem subdued in the mix. The solution is to set tracks 1 and 2 to an empty v-track or reduce their levels to minimum so that you are only listening to the stereo mix, which should sound the same as it did when you bounced it.

If you're not sure which v-tracks are currently selected, bring up the V-Tracks display by following the procedure on page 40 of the Micro BR manual under "Switching V-tracks". The top line of the display shows 8 small boxes for the 8 v-tracks of the currently-selected track. Dark boxes indicate used v-tracks. Empty boxes indicate empty v-tracks. The second line of the display indicates the currently-selected v-track for each track.