Best way to have a loud track

Hello everybody,

Just a little question, which may sound stupid…
Imagine you began a song, with every track at 100% of their volume. Then suddenly you want a very loud track to come.

So the question is :
From a sound-quality point of view, what is the best to do this ?

  • Add a multitude of the same track in order to have it loud
  • or use a gainer on the track
  • Decrease all the other tracks volume instead
  • or something else ?

Thanks for your replies !
Jnv

Hiya!

Guess many of us have faced this problem :)
Usually you use to duplicate the same track but you don’t need to do so in Renoise (if you ask me) because the Gainer should bring the same result:
x times louder.

As a question of quality I’d say you better decrease the volume of all other tracks and keep the special one a bit louder.
But you can do the same like this:
Go down with the main volume (master) and put a gainer into the track which needs it. At the end this way could still mean a lower quality because you made a special track quieter and then louder (changed the wave 2 times). But if you ask me: None could ever hear the difference.

Last way I know is to put the compressor on the one track which has to be louder. I suggest the comp because you wouldn’t really have to go down with the main volume then and still you wouldn’t get clippings. Because then the track is continiously loud at the highest available level - it doesn’t change between loud and silent anymore what makes it sound ‘louder’ at the end.
But this would defenately mean a big fat change in this one track. Simply because of the compressors action.

Hope I could help. c ya!

I always work with the master volume at its maximum position (FF), since it gives me maximum resolution over altering the global volume (a volume fade out at the end, for example). I guess if you work like this long enough, eventually you know what sort of volumes instruments should be. Well, that’s how I go about it anyway. I set the most prominent instrument the loudest and work the softer instruments around that.