My question is what is the best way to volume match everything and make sure all the tracks are the same volume level ? what tool do I use to match them accordingly ? I am using music maker premium 2016 hope some one can help ?
Hi,
There are different ways. Did you use the mixer (shortcut M) and adjust the levels according to what you see on the meters and hear with your ears?
Are you talking about audio, MIDI or both?
If audio, did you normalize everything? Did you do any compression on objects or tracks that require it, like vocals?
both do I use the same method ? it seems actully I been doing it that way I was hoping perhaps there was a better way ?
Hi,
Audio and Midi each have their own particularities.
For audio, you control the input level when you record. Once recorded, you can normalize to get the highest level to reach 0db. Actually you should use less than that, but MusicMaker does not give you the choice. BTW, presently, checking the both for Normalize after recording in the recording parameters does not work and hasn't for the last couple of version.
So, if you normalize all of the audio tracks, the loudest level of each track will be 0db, unless you have some that already exceeded that, in which case you may get clipping. Anyways, I think that this is what you want.
For some, like a voice track, you next may want to use some compression to bring the lower levels closer to the top.
Midi has more combinations. Firstly, there is a volume control with the instrument. Next, when you record from a touch-sensitive keyboard, that also controls the volume of the individual notes, also called Velocity. Hitting the note harder increases the velocity, thus is louder. Once in MusicMaker, the velocity can be controlled/modified in the piano roll view by clicking on the velocity button and the adjusting the height of the bars in the graph at the bottom, or on the notes - you need to read about this.
Finally, you can control the volume of each track in the mixer and the volume of the master. This is where you decide how you want to mix the volume of each track.
As a bonus, you can control the volume of objects individually and you can have volume curves and raise and lower the volume of objects and tracks over time. This is called automation.