Old 10-21-2020, 02:28 AM   #1
Edu Camargo
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Default Freezing makes track louder, why?

Hi folks,

Recently I've been involved in an album project that will be distributed physically (CD) and digitally. This is in fact a second one of its kind and its features go as follows.

On this album, some tracks flows to another with no gaps between them.

To better optimize the situation, I had to create a workflow that allowed me to work in the same project for both the physical and the digital distributions.
Since some of the tracks have gapless transitions, keeping the mastering fx on the chain wasn't helping me when exporting regions, because pops and clicks were being added due to the fx being closed and reopened for each exported region.

The solution was putting the mastering effects (eq, exciter, multiband compressor and limiter) on the track where the songs reside, freeze the track, and then add dither to the master track. This allows me to make CD quality exports and hi resolution exports as needed just bypassing the dither plug-in.

But recently, checking up the levels after freezing, I've noticed that the audio is louder.

Why is that and how one can prevent this from happening?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Peace,

Edu Camargo.

Last edited by Edu Camargo; 10-21-2020 at 10:14 PM.
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Old 10-21-2020, 03:37 AM   #2
ramses
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Freezing a track should not influence track output level. What format are you freezing to?
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Old 10-21-2020, 01:46 PM   #3
Edu Camargo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ramses View Post
Freezing a track should not influence track output level. What format are you freezing to?
Here I'm using 44.100Hz as the sampling project; 32bit fp. When freesing it renders the audio to the same format. For resampling I use extreme HQ.

Source bounces are 48000Hz/32bit fp.

Last edited by Edu Camargo; 10-21-2020 at 10:16 PM.
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Old 10-22-2020, 02:35 AM   #4
shosty
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Isn't freezing pre-fader? If it is then maybe that's what's causing the issue for you?
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Old 10-22-2020, 04:44 AM   #5
ramses
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shosty View Post
Isn't freezing pre-fader? If it is then maybe that's what's causing the issue for you?
Yes, that's probably it. Channel fader levels are KEPT after freezing, not nulled out. That is, the volume level of the pre-fader track output will be present in the frozen file.
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Old 10-22-2020, 07:07 AM   #6
Edu Camargo
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Thanks guys for the light-shedding on the subject. Is the render stem an alternative for me, or is there a way to freeze post-fader?

Thanks again!

Peace,

Edu Camargo
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