Music added to video is too soft?

Cubase
1

I am new to this. I am learning how to compose to video.

I am trying out the Export > Video > Replace Audio in Video feature. It works as far as the export goes, but when I watch the video with the added audio, the audio track is substantially softer than how it sounds when I listen to the same thing in Cubase.

Can you explain what is happening?

2

I am not sure what you mean by softer. Like not as loud as in Cubase or are you referring to a specific sound quality?
Anyways, the rule of thumb applying here: you get what you produced unless you have rendered the track into a very lossy mp3 format or something like this.

3

you could try to measure the loudness. Youlean Loudness Meter - Free VST, AU and AAX plugin has a free plugin that does that.

Put it on the Master (Stereo Out) of you session, mute the original audio of the video and see what LUFS value is displayed in the “integrated” section, when you play a part or even the entire video in your session.

And then do the same thing in a new session where you imported the video-export, that you think is too quiet.

If both have the same integrated LUFS value over the length that you played back, then the export worked fine and you need to make your music louder.

1 Like
4

Soft=Not as loud. As I said, the output I made was a video (mp4) per the steps above. While editing and listening to the tracks in cubase, they are at a nice volume level, when watching the exported video, they are substantially lower in volume.

5

Actually, it is exactly as I said - you get what you produced.
If you want to check you can do so by checking out the LUFS like @Joshua_Reiners proposed above.
You can also do a Null Test which is a bit more complicated but it will show the same result just on another level.

I assume that there is an underlying audio track in the video as you chose the option “Replace Audio in Video”.
Take this original track as a reference for the loudness level by simply switching between Solo/Mute on this track (leave it at 0dB for that purpose) and compare it with your newly composed music.

Adjusting the new music with regard to level (and sound) is a very complex subject. However, you could start with the Cubase stock Maximizer.
Put the Maximizer on an Insert in your Stereo Out track:

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and start with one of the presets that seems fit for the task, like this one for example:

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Now you can play with the optimize button and adjust to taste. Please make sure that the music doesn’t sound squashed (the GR meter in the middle will indicate how much Gain Reduction is applied).
Please keep in mind that this will also affect your original track. If you want to compare them with the method above you have to turn the Maximizer off first if you solo the Original.

I have not yet asked which Cubase version you are on but I guess that a Maximizer is present in all versions. Take it from there and keep us posted.
Good luck!

6

Thanks for all this, I will look into it. For the record, the video clip I am experimenting with had no sound track, so I am replacing “nothing”.

Maybe exporting a new video is a better option. Again, I new to this.