Help mastering CD volume

[angelamd32]

I will try to make this as easy as possible a question. I am teaching myself how to edit audio messages to be burnt to a cd for a non profit that needed the help. For the most part I've got down what the employer is looking for in his messages, but then it is burnt to a cd and people say they are having trouble with the volume levels when it is played in the car stereo. The employer prefers it to be done as an mp3 format although I would like to switch to a more universal format because we are finding most of those receiving the cd's have no way to play an mp3 outside of their vehicles (that may be slightly off track or maybe you could suggest another format as well) When it is played in the car stereo they say the volume is too low. When I have edited though I have the volume at its highest peaks almost right at 0db. The audio messages can go from talking rather intimately to being very animated and rather loud as well so I have had to try and normalize it and compress it to make it all a little more even. Either way when I create my final mixdown, it is as high as I can get it without crossing that line, and people are still having problems hearing it in their cd players. I can play it on my computer fine, I even send myself the audio on my iPhone and it is fine. What am I missing. Please keep in remembrance I am completely  self taught and may not know a lot of terms so keep it basic please. Thank you

[Bob_Howes · Accepted solution]

I suspect what you're missing is dynamics processing/compression.  Most commercial recordings (whether wave for a standard CD or MP3) use this feature to limit the dynamic range.  In listening spaces like cars, if you set the volume to sound right on the loud bits, the quiet parts will be drowned out by background noise.

Audition has a number of dynamics processors--as it sounds like you're working with voice only, you might try Effects/Amplitude and Compression/Speech Volume Leveller first.  You'll have to play with the settings to make the max volume as near zero as possible then see what dynamic range is most acceptable.

Or, if you're willing to put in a bit of extra tweaking, try "Single Band Compressor" in the same path.  It has several voice presets you can use as starting points but you may want to Normalise to just under zero once you've controlled the dynamic range.

[angelamd32]

This appears to have helped immensely. I won’t know more until I run it through a car stereo but it seems to have made a huge difference even in just the waveform. Thank you for your help!!