I’ve put together an audiocast which has music on the intro and under the end credits. As a result it’s on Music Track #1 to avail of the auto-ducking/Dynamics Processing.
It sounds fine when I play back the multitrack, but once it’s mixed-down (Export > Multitrack Mixdown > Entire Session…) the music level is very low. The music track has good levels (see screenshot for reference) and the track gain level is currently at +2, going any higher sends the track levels into the red, yet it still sounds weak once everything is bounced down.
Has anyone else come across the same problem or perhaps have some advice?
Okay. I’ve compressed the music track to roll off those peaks and tried mixing down again, but the music level is still very low despite there being no dialogue on those parts. The yellow keylines show the music in the final mix:
Unfortunately, compressing the music doesn’t seem to solve the problem. However, I see that the music track is stereo, while the dialogue tracks are mono.
Hi, sorry for the late reply, you’ve probably sorted it by now.
The stereo music + mono dialogue won’t affect it. Lots of instruments are in stereo but everybody’s voice is mono.
It’s weird that it sounds okay in the multitrack but once you mix down it sounds different. Having said that I have encountered it in the past, but I can’t remember how I fixed it.
The only thing I could suggest is to put a limiter on the master track, (I always pick a nice safe -1) and then add some gain to the clips (say +3db) and see how that sounds in the mixdown. If it still sounds too low, then try another +3db… check you haven’t accidentally left a limiter or something else on one of the inserts in your music track, or a compressor on your vocals track…
Best guide is your ears, not the visual!
