Render two different songs resulting with the same level

Hello,

for a live act I would like to mix some tracks of different songs (in Renoise). So say I have Song A and Song B and render each song, and each song rendered separated into tracks. So in a new song I want to mix tracks of Song A with tracks of Song B (for example with crossfading).

For that purpose, the songs should have been mastered on an equal level (also they should have the same RMS).

Somehow I can not figure it out, how to do it; One of the song is still louder than the other. How do you proceed? What kind of helper vst plugins do you use? Is there some plugin which visually gives some hints?
Help would be very appreciated.

try uploading them to auphonic.com :wink:

It likely has to do with the tracks themselves rather than the db of the tracks. If you put a track of mine mastered at 0 db sausage style and a Skrillex track mastered the same way, the Skrillex track will sound louder because of the way the track is mixed. Hell, the Skrillex track might sound louder even if it wasn’t mastered to 0 db. ‘Loudness’ is an illusion separate from the actual db level, so you might want to examine your tracks more deeply to see how the elements fit together.

The tools measurements don’t takes psychoacoustic loudness curve in the count. So for different frequencies weight distribution from a song to another, you can have different loudness perception, but equal louness measurements on the meters…

My opinion is that the only magic plugin that can help you here is your ears, by changing the mix or total level of one of your song … By reducing it’s level to the lowest of the both…

As the perceived human hearing graph down here illustrate: If your song has a lot of bass, the measurement tools will reach high level pretty quickly but what you’re hearing at the same time could sound not that loud to you…

iso226.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

Also , you should try to compare with your song with LUFS metering which is now the official loudness unit measurement.

Try it in ‘EBU Mode’, which includes a Momentary (400 ms), Short term (3s) and Integrated (from start to stop) meter and a set of audiosignals to test the meters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_monitoring

I don’t know a lot of software having it: Adobe audition… izotope insight…

I hope that I helped a bit…

I don’t know a lot of software having it: Adobe audition… izotope insight…

I’m a cheapo, I use this
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/ac_r128_by_audiocation/details
and this
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/k-meter-by-mzuther/details

The cheapest way (and really not advisable) is simply bang up one gainer, set them it full level and then use a compressor to compress everything back to 0DB

Do this for the other song as well, now you have two rendered outputs compressed back to 0 DB

Though none of the songs have a high dynamic range so you are wasting your dynamic range estate.

I’m a cheapo, I use this
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/ac_r128_by_audiocation/details
and this
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/k-meter-by-mzuther/details

Great ! I’ll have a look at these for sure! Thanks f+d+k !

@all: Thank you very much for your replies, this helps a lot. :slight_smile:

Regarding techno, it seems to be important to have the base drums of each song at the same level/loudness, as the bass frequencies play a big role in the loudness. I chose this as starting point and mix the other tracks regarding to that base drum level. Of course you also have to have an eye on the overall loudness of all tracks.

Thank you Woodpecking Mantis, you lead me into the right direction, the LUFS metering seems to be a reliable measurement. I found also a free vst plugin:

http://www.klangfreund.com/lufsmeter/
Now the songs sound much better, but there is still some difference. I try to optimize this tomorrow to get a better result.