Hey Oli Griffiths,

If it's running too hot try turn down the Gain on the Master Level of Studio. You can select the Master Track from the Song View by clicking 'Master'. You can also apply compression and limiting here (along along with other FX).

Studio does have a small amount of limiting built-in so you're correct you are just hearing the other decks turn down as a result of the louder deck. Turning the master gain down will solve this.

Hope that helps,
Logan.

Hey Logan

Thanks for the clarity. It would be good to have volume meters for each deck so I can verify the actual level being produced.

With that said, all my decks were at default gain (0dB), some using serato instruments, some using samples, some using VST that had their output volume set so it wasn't clipping.

The sum total of all the above was the output volume clipping according to FabFilter or SPAN at +4-6dB.

If I reduce the output gain to reduce clipping, this is fine, but then the overall volume of serato relative to other apps like spotify or apple music is considerably lower, so I am wondering where the discrepancy is?

I don't think it's that other stuff I listen to is hard compressed, it seems like any audio is louder. Which makes me wonder why the output of serato is considered by these plugins to be clipping.

Hope you can shed some light.

Oli

Hi Oli -

Do you have any plugins like the Youlean Loudness Meter, for measuring the apparent volume levels and peak levels, compared to other tracks? You might find that the unmastered audio from your decks is peaking higher than it sounds, and this could be causing the final limiter to push the volume back, when comparing to a reference track.

We don't currently have an option to just clip the output instead of limiting it, but if you want to max out the final output volume using a clipper or a faster limiter/maximizer, you could try a plugin in the final Master FX slot, e.g. the freeware plugin "Limiter No6". (Click the Master track in Song View with FX on, to see the Master channel and FX slots)

We don't limit our headroom internally until the very end, although we understand that some plugins don't handle input above 0dB (or maybe another value like 12dB,18dB for various reasons), if you need to put one of these on a deck then my recommendation is to trim the deck Gains back, maybe even more than just a few dB.

Can you tell us what seems missing from the level indicators on the decks (behind the volume sliders) that would better meet your needs as a level meter? For example, if you were to choose one or two from "visible 0dB mark", "calibrated scale", "peak hold on the meter", "peak hold as a number" , "peak plus volume reading", "colors", what would be most important as a minimum?
So far the aim has been to keep things less busy for those starting out, but it's also important to have things be useful for more advanced users.

If your mix is a bit quiet after that you can bring it back up using the Gain at the top of the Master channel, or an effect on Master that raises the level. Some of the presets on the FX tab might help - many from the Mastering category - or the Parallel Compressor in the Compressor section which brings up the lower levels more than just squashing the peaks.
The Master channel Gain can also be useful for taming things if your whole mix has become too loud.

Hi Andy

Thanks for the informative response.
Yeah I totally missed the volume levels behind the faders, my bad. It would be good if they should show a clip light/LED or red level if the individual deck is clipping, or the auto limiting is happening or something, rather than solely relying on hearing it.

I take your advice on reducing the gain of decks so as not to clip. I'll give that plugin a try and see what it shows, but so far with all decks at 0dB gain and full volume on the fader, the output is +4-6dB.

For me what would be most useful would be a mixer view, with a vertical channel for each deck like a regular mixer, that shows the volume of each deck and its gain high/mid/low & volume controls, this would be super useful and allow a good overview of the levels of everything in the mix. Right now clicking between decks is kind of tiresome, especially with the animation opening each deck.

I'd like to be able to get the levels right before exporting the stems for final master which I'll probably do in another DAW or to send to a mastering engineer.


Thanks

Hi Oli -

Thanks for the feedback, it sounds like we're all thinking along the same lines, I can't personally make any guarantees about a mixer section like the one you're talking about but it's a common request and definitely something we're thinking about improving.

I can see that even putting a level meter on the first Master Channel slot with Master Gain and EQ flat won't help you judge the individual track levels, because they can either reinforce or cancel amplitude when mixed, checking the overall peak level won't help tell you whether each track would clip on its own.

If you set it up so that a meter plugin with an infinite-hold (click to reset) peak reading shows no more than +6dB peak on a flat master channel for each channel soloed in turn, then you'll know that exporting stems with the "Decrease audio output for stem files by 6dB" option applied will give you no clipping on each track.
Or with that option switched off, you would need to adjust so that no one track goes over 0dB peak for exporting individual deck stems.
You could even try doing throw-away exports with soloed channels to have it run through faster, you may still be able to get the peak reading from a meter plugin.

Hi Andy

I did some testing with one of my decks. Can you confirm if the top of the volume fader when it shows the level is 0dB?

I am seeing a a difference between that level and the level displayed in SPAN or FabFilter

www.dropbox.com
www.dropbox.com

The level in serato shows lower that what SPAN and FabFilter read. Is this normal?

Thanks

Hi Oli

I checked up on the level indicator calibration for you, and at the moment they show +6dBfs at the top, and 0dBfs at 90% vertical height, which lines up with what you're seeing. They are peak reading indicators. It's probably this will improve at some point by adding some kind of calibration marks, and it's unlikely to change otherwise so you can probably rely on 90% of meter height staying at 0dB for now, if there's any future doubt about that you could confirm with the same kind of check you gave it using SPAN.

This means that if you export your stems using the Export Song function with -6dB reduction, then the top of the indicator will represent 0dBfs. If you're rendering multiple channels at once using the Master Output, you would need to put SPAN or some other meter in the last FX slot on the Master View to get a reading of the peak output level.

Thanks for your questions and feedback on this so far!