General mixing/mastering question, regarding peaking meters/

Adam78 wrote:

SimonInAustralia wrote:ep, I do not understand the difference they are claiming.

I cant see why you think a clean recorded signal that runs thru your a/d converter
on levels that your gear was designed for is the same as a hotter noisier recorded signal. (whatever the spec)

Maybe you cant hear the differences but i rather boost and abuse the cleaner lower signal than the noisier one. Especially if we are talking about hardhitting drums with alot of sub bass going on.

Adam78 wrote:Where are the insults?

well lets just say i overreacted, its all good anyway.

this is also wrong, a hotter input signal that requires no boosting during record or export later will be less noisy then a low signal you boost later on because you will be boosting the noise! You want to turn your input gain down as much as possible to reduce noise from the analog components, while driving the input signal itself up as close to 0db without clipping in order to make the most out of the ADC. I think we CAN hear the differences and it sounds worse!

My answer to this question is some distortion is unnoticeable to the human ear. You should purposely push your faders to the top so you can hear what distortion sounds like. Its an ugly sound, and technically that sound is whats happening when your meters are hitting red. Don't be discouraged about the mix not sounding loud though, the loudness will come in the mastering stage. Just try your best and get the mix the way you want it. I like to mix between - 3db and -6db, for when you do master it their is room to make it loud.

I won't be sending it to someone to master it, I'm basically mixing and mastering all at once. I guess I'm gonna mix it so it sounds good, and doesn't peak, then bring the levels up as much as I can.

I know what a limiter does, but I don't really know how to use it yet. Should I be using one on every track (drums, samples, bass, etc), or just some tracks, OR just have one on the master?

Anyone know of any good tutorials on limiting? I'll just look on youtube for now

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:I won't be sending it to someone to master it, I'm basically mixing and mastering all at once. I guess I'm gonna mix it so it sounds good, and doesn't peak, then bring the levels up as much as I can.

I know what a limiter does, but I don't really know how to use it yet. Should I be using one on every track (drums, samples, bass, etc), or just some tracks, OR just have one on the master?

Anyone know of any good tutorials on limiting? I'll just look on youtube for now

Just the master bus, especially for your needs of bringing up the volume of the entire track. What limiter are you using and I can probably help you find a video, peace.

You don't have to use a limiter on the whole mix, you can apply it to a single track like some producers just use it on drums. It just keeps a constant signal no matter how loud or low you pass something through. Its really up to you whether you need one or not. Recording is an art and nothing is written in stone. You use what you got at your disposal and make the best out of it.

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:Should I be using one on every track (drums, samples, bass, etc), or just some tracks, OR just have one on the master?

I like to use a limiter on kicks that have really high transients. I don't squash it though, I literally "limit" them, just a tad bit 0.5 db. I mean if your going to master all within the same program you can go that route of putting a limiter on the mix bus instead. Theres a little more to mastering then just making a mix loud though, Im pretty sure you already knew that. I use Wavelab for mastering but you can master in Ableton, the only problem is you might not be able to get it to "Commercial" standards without a VU meter. I mean you probably can but it will be more difficult to measure and what not.