Question

HP Computer, Windows 10, Studio One 3.

After I mix my song, the playback volume to my monitors are great using the Windows Audio, when I mixdown and save to wav, I get out of Studio One, and playing it in a normal media player on the computer hooked up to the same monitors, it's volume is much lower.

I guess my issue is that when playing the song from Studio One, it's much louder than after I mix it to a .wav file.  What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,

It could be various things causing that including the media player settings.   What you want to do is mixdown in Studio One and either check "Import to Track" in the dialog so it will come back into the song, or drag it back in manually.   Then....

Assign it to a sub out using the same outputs as the main, to bypass any master bus Fx, and solo it and A/B it against the multitrack mix.  If it sounds the same volume wise, it is what it is and any difference you hear in any other media player is from another influence.  If not, if it sounds lower there, it may be that it didn't mix correctly or you are hearing things from the multitrack mix that are doubled somehow that aren't getting printed on the mix, making it sound louder.

The key is to compare it directly to the main mix in Studio One.   After that, you'll know if it's the same or not.

Answer 2

Well, the point is that a mixdown volume is not, and should not be, at commercial levels, because it is the job of the mastering to produce a radio-ready track including "appropriate volume". 

If you import in your session any of professional, already mastered song of your choice, S1 will play it much louder than every media player software, and you will probably get massive clipping. 

The good news is that you can make fast mastering moves within the S1 project mode: https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005943706-Episode-88-Mastering-Setup-with-Studio-One-3-Professional