Hey guys, So I'm starting to work on an EP with a friend and I just have some general questions about mixing songs and volume. I know that mastering's job is to bring the volume up, but how loud should my mix be? Should I try to record everything in the green and mix the song in the green, or should I record and mix it in the yellow area on the meters? I also hear that it's good practice to keep all volume sliders at about -3dB to give you more room for volume adjustment. Any tips would be appreciated.
Mixing Volume levels
- Thread starter TylerW
- Start date
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
Anything that naturally (as in, no limiting or excessive 2-buss compression) doesn't approach clipping is generally fine.
Ideally? -6dBFS peaks (give or take) and a 18-24dB crest (again, give or take) is as "normal" as anything. But in 24-bit, you could peak at -20dBFS and have a 24dB crest and it isn't really going to hurt anything...
Faders go where they go. Unless you tracked with freakishly conservative levels (like I tend to do), I'd be surprised if you could keep your faders that high (-3). But if you can, there's nothing wrong with that.
Ideally? -6dBFS peaks (give or take) and a 18-24dB crest (again, give or take) is as "normal" as anything. But in 24-bit, you could peak at -20dBFS and have a 24dB crest and it isn't really going to hurt anything...
Faders go where they go. Unless you tracked with freakishly conservative levels (like I tend to do), I'd be surprised if you could keep your faders that high (-3). But if you can, there's nothing wrong with that.
flatfinger
Use every dam bit!
One easy way is to use VU meters only or find a meter that uses the K -meter specs and use K-14. Record in 24 bit and you have a theoretical 144db range to play with ( when the actual signal hits the hardware it's more like 120db-ish) . Basically when you track , your energy is better spent on mic placement and other concerns rather than sweating to .........
USE EVERY DAM BIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USE EVERY DAM BIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MG Eddie
New member
If you want an easy approach you can just get your levels into the "orange" when checking your sound, so that your not quite clipping but still have the most volume available to you should you need to use it. Also you can always turn it down if something else doesn't get hot enough.
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
"Into the orange" is program dependent. If "orange" is where line level is exceeded, then you don't even want to be in there regularly... And "not quite clipping" is WAY too hot.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
What kind of software gives you vague colors that make you guess the level rather than actual numbers in dBFS so you can know?
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
I think ProTools is actually like that.
I'm using Protools 8.0.5 currently.
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
I know. They should have fixed that ages ago. I don't now why people tolerate it.
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
A simple gain adjustment will get you where you need to be without the extreme over-gaining of normalization...
ExpressMix
New member
I think people confuse today's normalizing with the old 16-bit days. You can "normalize" an audio clip to 0 or to -10 or anything else, it's just simple gain and in all cases I'm aware of in modern daws it's non-destructive and it has no effect on sound quality, it's just amplitude. It's really pointless though in hosts that have clip gain that goes up like, +24db... unless (for some odd reason) you need to have a track's max peak at a certain precise level.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
^^^^
What ExpressMix said. I'm always bemused by the downer people in here have on the word "normalisation" (and I wonder what the heck "extreme over gaining" is supposed to be!).
Normalisation in any DAW worth owning is exactly the same as pushing up a fader (except you tell the system where to put the highest peak in the file and the rest follows). It does nothing destructive to your tracks, makes no difference in sound quality, doesn't change the dynamics ratio of your track and is completely reversible if you want to change it again.
It's just a tool...and a useful one if you want to put the level of a track in a convenient range for mixing it with others. There's nothing evil or wrong about normalisation, at least as long as you don't try to use it as a substitute for actually mixing.
Bob
What ExpressMix said. I'm always bemused by the downer people in here have on the word "normalisation" (and I wonder what the heck "extreme over gaining" is supposed to be!).
Normalisation in any DAW worth owning is exactly the same as pushing up a fader (except you tell the system where to put the highest peak in the file and the rest follows). It does nothing destructive to your tracks, makes no difference in sound quality, doesn't change the dynamics ratio of your track and is completely reversible if you want to change it again.
It's just a tool...and a useful one if you want to put the level of a track in a convenient range for mixing it with others. There's nothing evil or wrong about normalisation, at least as long as you don't try to use it as a substitute for actually mixing.
Bob
