How to make your songs louder - without making them louder

Have you ever compared your track with a professionally produced tune and asked yourself; "How come my track is so much quieter?"

In today's age of maxed-out, dynamic-range-less tunes, where louder songs make you noticed on the dancefloor as they hit harder and make the punters dance similarly harder, it's never been more important to sort out your volume issues.

When even limiting the hell out of it doesn't seem to do the trick, it's time for you to look deeper into your track and explore the frequency spectrum...


Frequency analysis

Man, that sounds scientific.   Frequency analyser plug-ins are all over the place - you can get good ones for free, such as Voxengo's "SPAN".   These allow you to see what frequencies are playing in your song as well as hearing them!

For a beginner producer, it is often hard to hear where different sounds are hitting in the frequency spectrum, and the dynamically generated graphs by these plug-ins allow you to see it pixel-perfect so you can adjust your sounds accordingly!

So how can this help to make your track louder?   You'll need to...


Maximise the available frequencies

It's important to differentiate two terms - apparent volume and actual volume.

Imagine you've got a track that's got a really loud bass part.   When you limit it, it will only bring the track up to the level of that bass part, meaning all the other parts will be left in the metaphorical dust, desperately clamouring to be heard - The actual volume might be at the 0dB point, but the apparent volume, what it seems to sound like, will be much quieter.

If the bass part is brought down, this means that all the other parts can be brought up to a more equal level when the track is limited.   The actual volume will be exactly the same as before, but the apparent volume will be much louder overall.

The idea is to have as many of the frequencies in the frequency spectrum hitting the same volume at the same time as possible.   If your frequency analyser looks like the himalayas, it's not as loud as it could be.   If it's a big ol' block of frequencies, you're on the right track for volume mastery!

So how can you change the frequencies?   There are several methods...


Altering the Frequency content

1. Sample selection

Make sure you're using samples that hit the right frequencies!   If you've got a snare and a kick drum that both punch around 150hz, you'll have a muddy, quiet mix.   If the kick hits at 100hz and the snare at 200hz, there's more room to breathe and it'll appear to sound twice as loud when they hit at the same time!

2. EQing

If you've got a space in the spectrum that isn't quite filled up, use EQing to bring up an instrument in that area.   For instance, say between 500hz and 700hz is a bit low, try EQing a pad to boost around the 600hz mark and fill the gap!   Be careful though - make sure the sound you're boosting actually has some frequency content in the area you're trying to boost.   You can try boosting a sub-bass at 15khz all you want, but it's not going to make it louder since there's nothing there to start with!

3. Compression

It's important to think in the dimension of time as well!   Some sounds will be too snappy, hitting hard and loud, then immediately dropping.   Compressing these sounds will mean they last longer - and we all know things that last longer are more satisfying!   Sounds that are louder for longer result in more consistantly loud mixes!

So take a look at your latest track through a virtual microscope and see if you can make it reach its volume potential!