I've been using Ableton rewired to Reason, these last few weeks, and
I really enjoy using those DAW's together.
The only thing I dislike, is that Ableton seems to go in "the red" part of the master channel, very soon, and my finished track is a lot more silent than other songs, and even more quiet than regular songs on Reason. Does anyone know how to solve this?
Yeah man, I've had this issue before as well. What I found out is....you have to adjust the levels on your instruments in reason before they hit Ableton. Normally when I rewire these two I run the combinators straight into the audio interface which leads out to Ableton and this is normally where Ableton is clipping (in my experience). When I turn the levels down on the combinators THEN adjust the incoming levels in Ableton accordingly. Reason may not be clipping but for some oddity Ableton will clip on the incoming channel, which in turn, will cause your master out in ableton to clip.
I realize everybody does things differently bro, but what I suggest to maximize your volume in your final masters then keep your levels down at mixdown. Make sure you leave plenty of headroom for your mastering and bring your levels up in your mastering through final eq'ing (if necessary), saturation, exciter, compression, and limiting....these are in no particular order (just sayin'). Make sure your mixdown is tidy in the frequency spectrum analyzer....ensure elements aren't fighting for space and cutout those inaudible frequencies!! Those frequencies the human ear cannot hear can affect the levels of everything else if they are using large portions of the spectrum. Also, make sure you analyze your files as you process your master and pay attention to your RMS loudness and less attention to peak loudness as your RMS is going to determine your overall, sustained loudness....
I'm no Bob Katz man, but this is the info I use when mixing down and mastering my tracks and I do pretty decent as far as I know.......I haven't had MANY complaints anyways......I hope this helps a little bit man.
OH! One last thing.....try and think in subtractive means when applying EQ. It's not always best to BOOST, instead, try cutting the frequencies you don't want in elements.....it helps to clear up room for your other elements without over stuffing the frequency range. If you were to think of the frequency spectrum as a dresser.....you can only fit so many items into it before its full. If you continue to pile things into the same drawer then its bound to overflow and get messy...keep it clean, keep it tidy and your track will reap the benefits.....
Now lets see if a REAL audio engineer can hook you up with all the right info
