Whenever I listen to the radio, I crank up the volume of the radio to half way in my car and it is loud. However, when I burn the song I made with Cubase to CD 44khz, I have to turn my radio up ALL the way to get the same loudness as the radio which is only half way.
On my MIXER when I press F3 it says im up as much as I can and it does clip but just barely. So I know its turned up in volume.
What am I missing?
Thanks,
MrD
http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com/loudness.html
Other random factoids:
Normalizing can make it so the peaks are pretty close to zero, and that can help make things sound louder. This can be found (by memory) in the Audio dropdown menu from the top, something like Audio>Tools>Process>Normalize.
Probably more helpful is getting the RMS up, rather than/in addition to the peaks. Compression and automation can help a lot here. You can check your RMS levels using the same drop down menu, but navigating to “Statistics”. Getting the RMS up is what most of the first two links is about. The last two links are pretty much about how much is too much, and how, the last article being a bit iconoclastic.
Good luck! 
Hi ALesis,
Great links.
What if I’m working with ALL vst instruments? Can’t use the audio process you’ve described…
Aloha m,
Mastering by a pro.
After all these years I recommend all
my clients to please spend the extra $$ and send
their finished work to a professional mastering house.
To raise to ‘perceived’ level of music (with minimal artifacts)
on any media, is a true art form and the best folks are great at it.
You get what you pay for.
If you want to compete with the big boys
you have to get into that arena.
HTH
{‘-’}