today deadline Desperately need help/guidance

[506Drumma]

For starters I recorded my band on a BR8 but now this promo company is putting our song on a promo cd. I need to get as powerful of a mix/master as possible in acid pro4. I send a pre-mix in stereo from the BR8 to my PC so everything is already mixed together(since it is a br8) it only has stereo outs. the problem I'm haveing is just as i get the mix exactly as I want it I can't keep the levels from cliping. I'll get them all pretty well under clipping but still sort of strong than a kick drum or bass riff or vocal run will shoot up. I try and use compression but it's all trial and error and I only figure it out as I perform a task and listen to the function to see what difference it makes in the mix. The recording it self tho was done pretty good. The bass is fat and low as I want it, the drums tho in mono are came out descent tho the snare sounds wierd prob cuz I didn't use enough mids when I sent it in, the guitars are the worst part of the mix and the vocals well you can listen to it for yourself if you want the MP3.com version was mixed in acid the garageband.com version was straight the br8. I need to accomplish a stronger mix without losing volume basically. Please Please any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Blue Bear Sound]

If you need to prep this song for release, then I strongly suggest you take it to a mastering engineer....

This type of situation is not the time to be experimenting with self-mastering.....

(Much like having a brain tumour isn't a good time to start looking into self-surgery!)

[laptoppop]

It seems like this goes beyond just being able to fix it in the mastering step -- sounds like problems earlier in the chain.

I don't believe one day will be enough for you to learn enough about mixing and mastering to get this together. I suggest you just make it sound as good as you can with a minimum of clipping and send it off.

What I would start doing is to transfer the various parts at levels that don't clip at all to the pc one at a time, then combine them there. Once there, I'd apply compression or fixes to the tracks that need them. In particular you mentioned particular strong riffs shooting up the volume - use compression to bring those under control.

Then you are able to adjust the EQ as needed, and mix it down, applying effects as needed.

After the whole song starts working well, then you can start to think about the final whole song tweaking (I refuse to call it mastering, especially for one song by itself! <grin>) For many styles of music these days, the final output is compressed heavily so that the volume can be turned up without distortion. Most of us think it has gone way too far, but if you need your demo to be in-your-face loud, then you probably need to compress it.

Good luck,
-lee-

[pipelineaudio]

this kinda stuff just makes me shake my head. Not only are you taking away good business from a professional studio, but you are shooting yourself in the foot so bad its incomprehensible!

You are sending stuff of this caliber as a PROMO???

you might only get one shot in life, and that isnt the time to cheap out.

all that said, if you DO mix that song into 2 tracks, leaving the levels low enough to avoid distortion I bet there are a few on this board who would pump it up for you as much as could be