I got this question in my inbox today and it seems like something a lot of people might have this very same question.

Heya,

I noticed your signature and had to come to you with a question of mine. I have recently finished a mix in Ableton 7 of ~12 songs in 40 minutes. When I bring the song into live, I notice that some of them are louder than others. When I try to export my mix, there is no way I can keep the master volume even across the board without using a compressor. If I use a compressor, my mix will not play as loud as another song I might download from beatport. (e.g. Windows Media) How can I fix that or learn more about this?

Thanks
Will

This is a problem that many DJs face, and why all hardware mixers have gain knobs!

Let’s review how a track usually goes:

• A track is crafted. Parts are written, drums are programmed, etc etc.
• During the mix, individual tracks will usually be compressed and, depending on the mix, you might see some group compression (like drums in a parallel compression scheme), and maybe even some buss compression on the master channel.
• After the track is mixed, it’ll need to be mastered. Hopefully the track is being sent to a qualified mastering engineer (like Sanjay or I). From there, the mastering process takes place. The engineer will take the final, mixed, stereo track and use frequency-specific compression as well as limiting among other things (EQ, other processors like the Oxford Inflator).
• Keep in mind that mastering processes are different depending on the medium. Most notably, mastering engineers will have somewhat different processes for mastering to vinyl and to CD/digital.

When you record a mix inside of a DAW, the reason the tracks all sound different in terms of volume is because every mastering engineer does things slightly differently. Also, when downloading tracks offline (especially from mp3 blogs), you’ll likely get a mix of vinyl rips and CD/digital copies. Lets take a look at two different waveforms.

This waveform is from a 12″ that I recently recorded into Audacity thru my Mbox:

Notice how, even thought it’s limited, it’s more of a sausage waveform. Now how do you think it’d sound if mixed into the next waveform which is a digital release I bought from Beatport:

Yeah. The first waveform is going to sound imposibly quiet when compared next to the second. So how do you fix this when recording a mix? I usually end up placing a limiter on the master channel to even everything out if I’m mixing inside Live 7. If I’m mixing on my CD decks with my mixer, then I use the gain knob.

Remember: you DO have gain control inside Ableton Live. Just double-click your audio clip and bring the gain up/down as you see fit:

Subsequently, if you’re sequencing a mix in the Arrangement view, there’s always automation!