do u prefer to run your final mix trough a limiter or compressor?

[earworm]

i just wonder, my habit (maybe its a bad one) is to run all my 20 tracks trough a stereo brickwall-limiter (treshold -0.5 db) to prevent peaking in my final stereo mixdown,
i find that my song has more power and stereospread this way,
but when i run it trough a compressor (talking about a "safe" treshold and low ratio) the song more sounds like one part, but a little more sqeezed together..;with less stereo and even with less power in it...

what do you guys do all the time?

 

[northsiderap]

Yup.

Either one is good for me, as long as they limit the peaks.

When using the brickwall, it's far too easy to flatten off the top of your waveforms...

I think there's something about mixing all tracks through the same device in general that adds a little something... For example all tracks through a nice summing mixer with some good transformers..

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

In a perfect world

I prefer not to run my final mix through anything.

G.

 

[Halion]

Limiter. But ofcourse used wisely. I still tend to overdo it a bit, though.

 

[Dogman]

I'm new enough, that my mixes don't sound cohesive, so I have been trying some compression after mixdown. Sometimes works, others not.
Ed

 

[Ronan]

IF you are working in 24 bit you are much better off just using conservative levels instead of limiting to prevent overs.

Once you are done mixing let a mastering engineer to the compression/limiting. If you are doing your own mastering wait until later to do it.

I use compression on my final mixes, but use analog consoles and run the mix through a Manley vari-mu or SSL 2bus compressor, and only draw about 1 or 2 dB of compression. If I do not have my Vari-Mu or SSL 2bus I do no compression on my mix until mastering. I would never run a final mix through a digital compressor or limiter while mixing.

 

[Massive Master]

Not surprisingly, I'm with Ronan almost to the letter.

If the mix is asking for compression, a dB or two of gentle, judicious compression can be wonderful. Beyond that, it's better to find out where it's needed at the track level.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

A group brought me a CD with their songs on it, and everyone of the songs was squashed within a inch of its life. Flattops on everything, and they wanted me to master it!!**

I asked if they had an unsquashed version, or at least the original tracks (offering to remix it for free). They said, no, that's what the engineer gave them and he swore he didn't use compression, and he no longer had the multi-track source. Yeah, right.

Spent a week on it and finally was able to add a little sparkle, definition, and some separation, but it was pure hell all the way. Good songs, good group, bad recording. I hate when that happens. There's such a wide gap between "Can you fix it?" and "Can you make it better?".

**Keep in mind I'm no mastering engineer, but we do offer "quasi-mastering" when the group isn't able to afford a real mastering job (which is what we encourage them to do).

 

[usernamebob]

to me this question is sorta like saying, do you like clean or dirty guitars. They both have their roles at different times

having said that, if you going to get your stuff mastered then don't run anything over the main mix!

 

[noisedude]

I don't know quite what I think about this, mainly because I don't own a compressor that even bypassed would not damage my sound in a big way, but I thought I might share one current anecdote.

I have a Jason Mraz live CD that seems to be completely uncompressed or limited ... I had it on fairly loud in the car but yesterday evening I came to a sudden burst of energy, a transient for which my car stereo was not prepared ... and now I am down a speaker in my car.

I guess the 'live' feel of the CD is enhanced by the unpredictable volume levels, but on a more 'processed' or 'packaged' production this might be undesirable, even unsafe, for the listener.

Just my thoughts.

 

[ryanlikestorock]

I'm waiting for a band to remix their album for mastering right now. It was smashed all to hell with an L2 to the point where I'd really prefer not to work with it. So, I guess my answer is to use whatever you need to, but as long as you know exactly what you're doing with it.

 

[FALKEN]

i just wonder, my habit (maybe its a bad one) is to run all my 20 tracks trough a stereo brickwall-limiter (treshold -0.5 db) to prevent peaking in my final stereo mixdown,
i find that my song has more power and stereospread this way,

do you mean that you are running 20 limiters?? that is not running the 'final mix' through a limiter. i hope that is not what you mean...unless you really dig that 'digital artifact' sound.

 

[ssscientist]

I use compression on my final mixes, but use analog consoles and run the mix through a Manley vari-mu or SSL 2bus compressor, and only draw about 1 or 2 dB of compression. If I do not have my Vari-Mu or SSL 2bus I do no compression on my mix until mastering. I would never run a final mix through a digital compressor or limiter while mixing.

Lah dee dah. Lah dee fucking dah. Who do you think you're impressing with this talk of $10K worth of processing that you 'only draw about 1 or 2 dB of compression' from?

Please remember the name of this board is 'Home Recording Dot Com' and for most of the people - the amateurs - who come here that 10K represents a lifetime of careful investment in an ever evolving string of recording gear.

We, as the more knowledgeable members of this community, have an obligation and a duty to tailor our answers to the audience. Not talk down. Not build ourselves up. Not laugh at the less informed or less well spoken, or those who haven't been as lucky as we have to find work in the audio world.

There are MANY other audio and pro recording boards that you can visit where the bigger the attitude and the larger the ego the more respected you are. I for one am quite troubled by no one calling bullshit on a post like this --- especially on HR.

There is useful info in this thread - even in this very post - but it's presented in such a condescending way as to be useless to the average reader.

 

[Matheon]

limiter.
i usually get decent tracks while recording/mixing yet i always manage to squash the crap out of it while mastering.
i have a natural hatred of dynamics..

i'm bad and i know it.

i need a 12 step program.

 

[ecktronic]

Maybe a hard compressor would be god, but i dont put my mix through anything, which mean i might lose out on a little quality from loss of bits. (digital)

 

[Ronan]

Lah dee dah. Lah dee fucking dah. Who do you think you're impressing with this talk of $10K worth of processing that you 'only draw about 1 or 2 dB of compression' from?

Please remember the name of this board is 'Home Recording Dot Com' and for most of the people - the amateurs - who come here that 10K represents a lifetime of careful investment in an ever evolving string of recording gear.

We, as the more knowledgeable members of this community, have an obligation and a duty to tailor our answers to the audience. Not talk down. Not build ourselves up. Not laugh at the less informed or less well spoken, or those who haven't been as lucky as we have to find work in the audio world.

huh? I am not sure what part of my post was as you suggest. FWIW, You can pick up a Vari-Mu used for less than $2500 used which will not only be a great tool for subtle compression on your 2-buss but also a great compressor for individual instruments and vocals as well. Mine was was first piece of high end gear I ever bought and still to this day one of my best investments.

But the point of my post was not to encourage people to own expensive gear, but to suggest that for the application in question, unless you have very good gear it is better to not use any compression or limiting on the stereo mix at all, and even if you do own very good gear it is something you should do very spariningly. If you want to try various stereo compression techniques on the mix I suggest that you do it after mixing, so that you can make those critical decisions when you can really focus on them and also in the context of making a collection of songs work together if you are doing an album. So many new engineers destroy their work with bad 2 bus compression. I sure as hell did when I was learning.Then guys that knew a lot more than me set me straight.

My opinion on this issue may indicate that I am a stupid arogant asshole, but you will probably find that 95-100% of real mastering engineers agree with me on this one.

 

[noisedude]

To be honest, I didn't get that arrogant thing from your post at all. I know it's difficult to guess emotion in text, but I didn't feel any putting-down was taking place. I wouldn't worry about it too much ...

 

[Massive Master]

Even if I only had a 3630 for the buss, I'd *still* use 1 or 2dB of reduction...

I have no idea what ssscientist is talking about...

 

[tmix]

I have generally never done much on the stereo buss at final mix, all the compressors and multiband this or that changed the sound so much I could not stand it.

I recently picked up a couple of ART Pro VLA's though. I wonder if using one of those across the master buss would work for bringing the volume a little without killing the air and high frequency aspect?

The only complaint I have had from my customers is that I refuse to "Master" stuff so my mixes are a bit softer than mastered CDs.


Tom

 

[RhythmRmixd]

If the mix is asking for compression, a dB or two of gentle, judicious compression can be wonderful. Beyond that, it's better to find out where it's needed at the track level.

I really like the way this sounds. I'm going home tonight and trying some new things with a couple mixes I've had issues with.