Dr. Varney
Pimp
I was advised, I think quite rightly, to leave some 'headroom' for other instruments in my mix - until I come to master - then push the levels up to meet the normal kind of volume expected for playback.
Now I've read up on the basics of compression and have learned to apply basic compression to certain instruments, where needed. I haven't touched a limiter yet (or so I thought I hadn't) because at this stage, I don't want something in there I don't know how to use...
Then I discovered...
FL Studio Producer 8 sticks one on the master mix - BY DEFAULT! Open the program, hear the little 'bleep' and there he is... Mister Limiter - all set up and ready to go...
(I knew it was there, actually - I just left it as is, thinking the authors of FL Studio must know best...?!)
Now... I'm aware of the old 'Volume Wars' and all that crap... I'm not in it for max volume or ear-shattering bass - I'm just trying to achieve a little 'sweetness' and groove (and I listen to music from all eras).
At this stage, I don't think I'm ready to grapple with a hard limiter just yet, but...
Obviously, I mixed my tracks with it switched on and before I switched it off, I dropped my levels to get around -12db headroom and then compared my ASIO output with the Windows Wave signal.
Now I'm not quite sure where I am because I figured the limiter would 'add' to the overall level of the main mix and of course, it doesn't - it just sounds louder. Now I've turned it off, after bringing the levels down, everything really does sound too quiet. I can't bring levels up much further, because most of them are near maximum... So this is turning out to be a bit of a problem.
Can anyone advise?
Cheers
Dr. V
Now I've read up on the basics of compression and have learned to apply basic compression to certain instruments, where needed. I haven't touched a limiter yet (or so I thought I hadn't) because at this stage, I don't want something in there I don't know how to use...
Then I discovered...
FL Studio Producer 8 sticks one on the master mix - BY DEFAULT! Open the program, hear the little 'bleep' and there he is... Mister Limiter - all set up and ready to go...
(I knew it was there, actually - I just left it as is, thinking the authors of FL Studio must know best...?!)
Now... I'm aware of the old 'Volume Wars' and all that crap... I'm not in it for max volume or ear-shattering bass - I'm just trying to achieve a little 'sweetness' and groove (and I listen to music from all eras).
At this stage, I don't think I'm ready to grapple with a hard limiter just yet, but...
Obviously, I mixed my tracks with it switched on and before I switched it off, I dropped my levels to get around -12db headroom and then compared my ASIO output with the Windows Wave signal.
Now I'm not quite sure where I am because I figured the limiter would 'add' to the overall level of the main mix and of course, it doesn't - it just sounds louder. Now I've turned it off, after bringing the levels down, everything really does sound too quiet. I can't bring levels up much further, because most of them are near maximum... So this is turning out to be a bit of a problem.
Can anyone advise?
Cheers
Dr. V
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