Reaper quiet Rendering problem and buffer? SD2.0 problems

[xeonblade]

I've been having weird rendering problems since I reinstalled my pc. I installed Reaper with its default settings as always. I haven't changed anything.
Master meter shows constant -3 to -0.1 (RMS shows around +4) but when i go to export it, it exports like 6dB quieter (around -1.5 to -2 RMS).

I recorded a song with a friend, did some volume and panning, it renders nicely. After that I recorded 2 quick ideas, it renders quietly. I haven't changed anything.
I've tried rendering with DirectSound, WaveOut, ASIO, I've tried .wav, .flac, .mp3, .ogg it's always the same result. Sounds good in Reaper, renders quiet.

I mean, Reaper MASTER MIX shows peaking 99% of the time, exported track has like 5-6db headroom till first peak, but in reaper it looks and sounds good.

First is exported, second is how it SHOULD be like and how it looks and sounds in Reaper before Rendered.

 

[xeonblade]

More Reaper problems: My guitarist and I were jamming a few times with him going direct into interface and and I'm going USB into pc with my Alesis Trigger IO. Interface is Focusrite Scarlett 8i6. We had no problems on 3ms setting. Our friend bassist came along and plugged in and we had no problems again. Few days later I started up the same reaper project I use for jamming and if i play the drums with guitar track armed drums sound like the buffer is non existent. It sounds like crazy alien sounds and shit, full of crackling. If i turn off drum record arm guitar sounds good, if its on then both drums and guitar sound like alien microwave signals.
I tried reinstalling drivers, reinstalling reaper, nothing helped. I've tried making another drum patch in new project but as soon as i arm both drums and guitar it starts crackling like crazy. It also slows down my whole recording while both tracks are armed.

 

[xCaptainx]

check your track routing. I had a similar problem and it turns out I didn't have everything going to the master track, or something silly like that. I had the opposite problem, everything was loud in Reaper, renders were quiet. I did something stupid like having 3 sends to master, making everything insanely loud haha.

 

[xeonblade]

There's nothing to check. I have only 1 track recorded and it still gives the problem. I don't send tracks or anything.

 

[xeonblade]

 

[elbiatcho1]

Tried raising the latency?

 

[xeonblade]

Tried raising the latency?

I raise the latency to 20ms setting on scarlett (which is max on the device) and i get like huge latency and I still get that terrible crackling and stuff. The point is: It worked perfectly on 3ms setting before and I didn't change anything. It's fucked up now.

 

[xeonblade]

 

[xeonblade]

 

[xeonblade]

Really, anyone?

 

[Yo_Wattup]

Well, as for the loudness thing. you should be mastering it externally anyway. Even if its a quick 2 minute job, just to get it louder.

 

[xeonblade]

Well, as for the loudness thing. you should be mastering it externally anyway. Even if its a quick 2 minute job, just to get it louder.

Do you even read the post before you reply? I brickwall limited it to commercial CD release volume and it still renders a lot quieter.

 

[Drew]

Do you even read the post before you reply? I brickwall limited it to commercial CD release volume and it still renders a lot quieter.

He's right, though - you're better off rendering it without a limiter, and then mastering in an external audio editor. For all I know, I could be having the same issue you are, but most of my mixes on the project I'm working on are coming in under -10db anyway when I export and I just bump it up afterwards. It should be a a total non-issue. Not the answer you're looking for, sure, but it's still a good answer.

That said, what are your render settings? Dumb question, but is it set to render the master mix?

 

[xeonblade]

Well, I'm just annoyed because, if it works nicely in some cases why would I have to bother with opening it again in other project just to turn the volume up

 

[Drew]

Well, I'm just annoyed because, if it works nicely in some cases why would I have to bother with opening it again in other project just to turn the volume up

The short, simple answer is you're right, that's annoying.

The longer answer is that throwing a limiter on your master bus is actually a very poor, imprecise, and inefficient way to master a mix. You have a LOT more control working on a finished mix in an external editor. I'm hardly a mastering engineer, but I'll bang together a quick "mastered" mix using several rounds of multiband compression and normalization before hitting it with a limiter. It takes longer, but you have a lot more flexibility over the results, and you'll NEVER hear a professional release that was "mastered" during mixdown for this very reason.

Look at it this way - I'm sure you're not cutting corners or using ineffective shortcuts while mixing. Why do so when mastering?

 

[Steve-Om]

The short, simple answer is you're right, that's annoying.

The longer answer is that throwing a limiter on your master bus is actually a very poor, imprecise, and inefficient way to master a mix. You have a LOT more control working on a finished mix in an external editor. I'm hardly a mastering engineer, but I'll bang together a quick "mastered" mix using several rounds of multiband compression and normalization before hitting it with a limiter. It takes longer, but you have a lot more flexibility over the results, and you'll NEVER hear a professional release that was "mastered" during mixdown for this very reason.

You learn something new everyday, perhaps that has been affecting my mixes as well.

to the OP, I also noticed that after mixdown, tracks tend to be just a LITTLE bit quieter, perhaps for the same reason, as I am also using a limiter on my master track.

Gonna change that when I get home.

Aside from the aforementioned, are there other, more "tangible", benefits of mastering after mixdown ?