Final mixdown and exporting?

yamaz · Post by **yamaz** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:16 pm

Ok so I have a bunch of semi done and almost done tunes in reason and ableton and wondered if you guys could help me get them into either 320bit mp3 or flaac.

I don't have any mastering software besides utilities built into these two daws. I want to get them to proper volume when exporting.

So far I get all my levels right mixed down and as high as they go including master volume without red clipping.

Then should I compress or limit master channel or normalize in wave editor like audacity?

Ableton doesn't export to mp3 I guess, so I went with a wav. Does it matter what settings you save the wav before converting to mp3(like always the highest?) Then from there what settings should I save the wav as mp3?

So basically my two questions are how to export song to mp3 the best way and how to maintain a good high volume with dynamics.

I know a lot of this depends on mastering and I'm going to have to learn a bit about this now...

zonetrooper5 · Post by **zonetrooper5** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:22 pm

I export it as a wav in Ableton Live then I open the wav file up in Audacity and then export it as an MP3 file, make sure you change the settings for the MP3 to 320 instead of the defaul 192 I think it is.

Basic A · Post by **Basic A** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:23 pm

Dont mix down at high volumes, use the levels you normally would. Put a little bit of compressor/limiter on the master channel to bring final volume up...

No need to normalize anything in audacity after that, that sounds kinda pointless after compression/limiting to me.

And any old daw will let you save 320s, thats not a master process thing, its a dropdown box.

Really though, I wouldnt do any of this to your tunes... save em as wav, save a 320 for those who ask, but leave masters clean so oneday you can have them mastered if you want to.

DJs dont care, well either gain up or compess ourselves.

skwiggo · Post by **skwiggo** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:30 pm

Edit# Ignore I missed the fact that you already had said you know you cant get 320's out of Ableton sorry

yamaz · Post by **yamaz** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:34 pm

Ableton only let's you export wav or aiff. Anyone kniw why it can't do mp3? Anyway I think it only lets you save at 192...wtf. audacity will let me convert wav as 320 mp3 but am I losing 128 bits in the conversion then?

Do you guys use other software like izatope ozone for this whole process including mastering?

skwiggo · Post by **skwiggo** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:45 pm

yamaz wrote:Ableton only let's you export wav or aiff. Anyone kniw why it can't do mp3? Anyway I think it only lets you save at 192...wtf. audacity will let me convert wav as 320 mp3 but am I losing 128 bits in the conversion then?

Do you guys use other software like izatope ozone for this whole process including mastering?

I dunno why Ableton can't save mp3's its definitley bugging though. I've resorted to downloading free wav to mp3 exporters before because of it. And I've never used Izotope stuff before too expensive haha. I just use the Live 8 multiband compressor and limiter very slightly on my mixes to get them a bit louder after keeping my headroom low

djake · Post by **djake** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:49 pm

i like it that ableton doesnt have the option to export to mp3, mp3's are a pretty rubbish file format anyway. only reason i use them is because people dont like downloading big files.

collige · Post by **collige** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:55 pm

You should be using the LAME codec to convert wav to mp3. Here's a list of programs that use it:
http://www.mp3-converter.com/encoders/lame_encoder2.htm

For dynamics, I throw a limiter on the master at -1db and bounce it.

yamaz · Post by **yamaz** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:14 pm

Yea well I think its odd ableon doesn't let you export to flaac or mp3....

I do use audacity and lame for the conversion. What setting do I want to save wav file with ableton and mp3 file with audacity?

Basic A · Post by **Basic A** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:29 pm

Dude you dont really wanna try full blown 'Mastering' oyur trakc son your own...Just get the levels peaking at a consistent point, compress it up to fill the headroom... But, if you dont know what your doing, fancy multiband compressors/master eqs/ect are just gonna hurt you more then help... most trust djs to gain up on unmastered stuff anyway... nothing keep shit thats not limited and compressed from getting plays... you should have a tight mixdown, and worry about 'Mastering' in the professional sense of the word when you feel like your at that level, and for now, just put a LITTLE bit of compression on tunes so your 320 crew doesnt have a quiet mp3...

And I repeast, save a WAV without the compressors/limiters/mastering shit, and then save another one with it.

collige · Post by **collige** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:32 pm

yamaz wrote:Yea well I think its odd ableon doesn't let you export to flaac or mp3....

I do use audacity and lame for the conversion. What setting do I want to save wav file with ableton and mp3 file with audacity?

WAV:Highest possible, but anything above 24bit/44.1Khz is overkill tbh. If it's going on a CD, dither it down to 16bit.

MP3: LAME CBR 320kbps

Final mixdown and exporting?

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