Also, real quick question regarding peak levels...

[Steve Henningsgard]

Let's say, hypothetically, that I've got a full band tracked, and that the song peaks at nearly zero. In order to increase headroom, say if I wanted to master it/get it mastered, could I not just lower all of the tracks' levels? As in, say in Pro Tools, I have the "all" group selected, and I lower everything by a dB or 2, and bring the master back to zero: would that solve the issue?

I would assume so, and I'd bet this gets answered within a post or two, but I just had to ask as my brain's fried and I can't think for myself right this instant (happy hour and all )

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Let's say, hypothetically, that I've got a full band tracked, and that the song peaks at nearly zero. In order to increase headroom, say if I wanted to master it/get it mastered, could I not just lower all of the tracks' levels?

Steve,

If you're sending it to someone else for mastering, I'd personally say just leave it alone and let the ME worry about the levels. He can always pull it back if he wants/nees to.

If you're mastering it for yourself, then you gotta ask yourself what the mix needs and decide what to do from there. I personally would not automatically pull it back unless I had a specific reason to do so.

Most importantly, though, before I even started, I'd ask myself why the mix is peaking at zero before mastering to begin with. Are those legitimate peak levels caused by high dynamics in the music, or is something perhaps tracked or mixed just a bit hot?

G.