Help needed...

[sausy1981]

Hi guys, greetings from Ireland.
I've been trying to master a few mixes I've done recently but with no success, The problem is that when I use the Limiter it seems to be working extremely hard before I can get levels to an acceptable level, and by acceptable level I mean -9db rms, GR on the limiter is going from -2db to -6db and the life seems to be getting sucked out of my mixes. The balance of the mixes are good and where I want them. But it seems to be on snare hits but the snare doesn't seem all that loud in the mix. When I put a meter on my final mix it's reading -6db on peaks and the rms is somewhere between -21 and -18 db. I'm a real newbie when it comes to mastering and would love some help, I've trawled the internet and read every article on Ian shepherds website about mastering, but I'm really missing something.
Any help or direction to learning resources would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.
Andrew

 

[Ethan Winer]

Mastering is not only about making a track as loud as possible.

One suggestion is to manually reduce the largest peaks destructively in an audio editor program. Then the limiter doesn't have to work so hard all the time. Here's another approach:

Peak Slammer Review

--Ethan

 

[theredbull]

Use compressors on individual channels, gain down transients, do what you have to do to make your mix less "peaky."

This will free up headroom in the mastering process.

As a guide I would suggest -18db is probably the lower end of where you want your mix to be registering on the master channels.

 

[sausy1981]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm not looking to make my music loud just for the sake of being loud, but just to at least compete with commercial stuff. After some google searching and a little self educating I'm getting better results.
Does anyone use the K-14 metering system, I tried using it on my the last mix I was mastering and with my RMS at 0db on the K-14 system, it correlated to -12/-11 rms under normal metering with a DR of 8.... Do these figures make sense? and are they reasonably good levels to those who master for a living...

 

[Massive Master]

Meters, schmeters. Calibrate your chain properly and ignore them.

Now on volume -- NO DOUBT that "volume" is usually an afterthought. Mixes that can actually handle that abuse are few and far between IME. And it's almost never as simple as it would seem otherwise...

 

[Chili]

I'm not looking to make my music loud just for the sake of being loud, but just to at least compete with commercial stuff.

That right there is an oxymoron. Commercial mixes are all about being loud for the sake of being loud. It's okay to be 1db quieter than what you're hearing on the radio. Your audience might have to turn the volume up just a little bit. Don't smash it to pieces, your snare drum will love you for it.

 

[sausy1981]

That right there is an oxymoron. Commercial mixes are all about being loud for the sake of being loud. It's okay to be 1db quieter than what you're hearing on the radio. Your audience might have to turn the volume up just a little bit. Don't smash it to pieces, your snare drum will love you for it.

I agree with what your saying man, commercial releases are often up at -6db rms in the genre I'm in. But I believe -9db rms at the loudest sections is loud enough, and theses kinda of levels should not be squashing a mix. I'm not a big fan of compression and on my last few mixes this was my problem, I hadn't used enough, But after revisiting the mixes and applying a bit more where needed I was able to achieve the results I wanted at the mastering stage. Thanks for your reply Chili.

John I'm a big fan of yours and have read all your articles on your site, a few years back your advice of recording and mixing levels changed how I work for the better. I've done exactly what your article says about calibrating my monitors using the pink noise at -20dbfs RMS, My problem is though that I am using a roland quad capture as my interface and there is no metering for what is being outputted to my monitors, so the only time I know I'm at the right level is when my Volume knob is in the 'home' position and my mix is at -20db rms, Have you any advice as to what I'm missing here. Much appreciated.
Andrew