Mastering volume

[Chill]

As John mentioned how much of this abuse your mix can take is dependent on the quality of the mix, as well as your skill in applying the above techniques.

Most of it has to do with how the core sounds fit together and how much of what type of compression is used on what.

What makes a mix more or less "compressable"? How do you get less dynamic range but still have the mix sound good? Don't know that I want to because I find I like the drums about 3-6dB louder than the guitars, but good to know how to do it just in case....

 

[masteringhouse]

What makes a mix more or less "compressable"? How do you get less dynamic range but still have the mix sound good? Don't know that I want to because I find I like the drums about 3-6dB louder than the guitars, but good to know how to do it just in case....

In general one major quality that makes a mix more "compressable" or "limitable" is space. If you have a highly dense mix, squashing it just makes it more dense, and difficult to hear the individual parts. Another element is how much distortion there is in the mix to start. Have you ever noticed that bands like AC/DC can make a pretty good sounding loud CD while others get more fatiguing? Part of this is the fact that Angus Young's guitar sound isn't overly preamped or "buzzsaw", as well as his playing being relatively sparse. There are types of distortion that come into play other than just the guitar sound, but you get the idea.

Clarity in the overall mix is another major factor. If it's muddy, it's going to sound like someone "stepped in the mud" when overly compressed. Also if the core sounds are great, they will sound good when you raise the volume, crap sounds worse when you turn it up.

There are other factors, just a few of the major ones that I've found.

 

[Farview]

Like Tom said, it's all about space and air. If everything has it's own sonic space, you can compress the crap out of it for two reasons.
1. No matter how hard you push, nothing will step on anything else
2. You won't need to compress as much because you probaly aren't using volume differences (as much) to separate the different instruments.