Am I doing this right?
I try to maximize my loudness in the mix as much as possible rather than relying on mastering compressors / limiters.
In order to get some more consistency with my tracks, I’ve been looking at some tutorials online. Seems to me that in every case, the online mix is much quieter than mine, and the limiter is used to generate loundness.
Using Ableton Live, I make sure that I don’t clip my individual channels. If their sum clips the master, I just lower all the channels at the same time until the master no longer clips. As the music passes through my master chain, I gain stage at each step. By the time my music hits the limiter, I’m barely hitting it. In other words, my mix is so hot that I don’t really use the limiter to add much gain; just enough to get it loud.
I was under the impression this was the ideal process.
Is there a better way?
Loudness - in the mix vs at the master?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 2402 posts since 28 Sep, 2012
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- addled muppet weed
- 105872 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
i know it's a cliched response, but how does it sound?
tbh it sounds like you're working in a more old school way is all. back when compressors where used on a needs basis rather than a standard operating procedure.
obviously some genres now use compression as a motif, but if you're working outside those genres or even within but doing youre own thing, then so long as you like the result, it's right!
tbh it sounds like you're working in a more old school way is all. back when compressors where used on a needs basis rather than a standard operating procedure.
obviously some genres now use compression as a motif, but if you're working outside those genres or even within but doing youre own thing, then so long as you like the result, it's right!
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- KVRAF
- 2565 posts since 2 Jul, 2010
We need to be careful to separate a few concepts here.
When you talk about avoiding clipping, you're talking about peak levels. As many have demonstrated, a modern DAW mixbus has eesentially infinite headroom so there is no technical difference between reducing all the fader levels and using a trim plugin on the master bus to drop the level there. Absolute fader level *does not matter* and should suit your workflow.
What *does* matter is the level going into any nonlinear plugin, so gainstaging should be based on what works with your plugins. -18dB RMS and peaks below 0dB will work well for most plugins.
Assuming that the final mix is trimmed to 0 (peak) dB, your *loudness* is determined by the dynamic range or crest factor. So "maximizing loudness" is primarily about where you reduce dynamic range; the peak level only matters right at the end. You cannot judge how somebody is doing this by looking at their fader meters.
Many people (including myself) prefer not to compress/limit by many dB on the overall mix because this causes pumping artifacts. But sometimes a bit of pump is actually desirable. "Better" is a matter of taste. Getting unwanted distortion and pumping in the pursuit of loudness at all costs is rather unfortunate in my view. If the guys making dubstep at -4 LUFS are making an artistic choice to induce massive ear fatigue then I can respect that.
When you talk about avoiding clipping, you're talking about peak levels. As many have demonstrated, a modern DAW mixbus has eesentially infinite headroom so there is no technical difference between reducing all the fader levels and using a trim plugin on the master bus to drop the level there. Absolute fader level *does not matter* and should suit your workflow.
What *does* matter is the level going into any nonlinear plugin, so gainstaging should be based on what works with your plugins. -18dB RMS and peaks below 0dB will work well for most plugins.
Assuming that the final mix is trimmed to 0 (peak) dB, your *loudness* is determined by the dynamic range or crest factor. So "maximizing loudness" is primarily about where you reduce dynamic range; the peak level only matters right at the end. You cannot judge how somebody is doing this by looking at their fader meters.
Many people (including myself) prefer not to compress/limit by many dB on the overall mix because this causes pumping artifacts. But sometimes a bit of pump is actually desirable. "Better" is a matter of taste. Getting unwanted distortion and pumping in the pursuit of loudness at all costs is rather unfortunate in my view. If the guys making dubstep at -4 LUFS are making an artistic choice to induce massive ear fatigue then I can respect that.
