Loudness of tracks

I have some tracks that are similar to my stuff but they sound so much louder than mine and I've already normalised my stuff. What do I need to do to make it sound louder? Compression always sounds awful or no different at all. What am I missing?

Compression shouldn't sound awful if you have a decent compressor/software. It is the one process that makes most difference.

dirty bass posted some really good advice on this subject pretty recently. don't remember which thread, but it was in the last couple of weeks i think.

i figure out why a certain track was waay louder than mine. it was a rectangle in soundforge it was clipped so much but i didn't notice as it was a distortion techno piece.

try the 'vocal/speech compression' setting on perx and stuff.
something to def give atry.. as in the waves c1 comp and others

loud isnt' necessarily better. that's what the volume knob on your amp is for :)

if you really want a track to sound loud, check you've got nothing going on below about 30hz (use a high pass filter) and then use waves L1 ultramaximizer to squeeze every last drop of volume out of it.

but iif your just going to be DJing the tracks or cutting them to vinyl best to go very easy on the L1 and not get caught in the loudness race.

ultramaximiser really does what it says on the tin