miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Can I get an explanation for "sunny day"...? 
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Cheers, now I have some vague idea of what the knobs do I can just twiddle them until I like what I'm getting.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
OK, had a fiddle with JS:Mastering Limter in Reaper. Seems pretty handy and easy to use and I'm getting used to the effects that adjusting some parameters have a how a mix sounds.
Some mixes immediately work well and are improved just by applying the limiter then I can adjust parameters to taste.
Some mixes pump like fuck and there's no amount of fucking about with knobs that can save them. Is this generally 'cos they are mixed two loud in the first instance?
Some mixes immediately work well and are improved just by applying the limiter then I can adjust parameters to taste.
Some mixes pump like fuck and there's no amount of fucking about with knobs that can save them. Is this generally 'cos they are mixed two loud in the first instance?
G
Greg_L
Banned
Could be, or it could just be that the mix sucks to begin with. A good base mix can handle some compression/limiting. A bad mix can't.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Because I've never tried any mastering until the last week or so I have ended up mixing some of my songs quite loud (as I had no idea what a mastering limiter was or did). Even though none of the individual tracks are clipping they were sometimes a couple of db in the red on the master fader. Didn't seem to have any impact on the sound or leave any artefacts in the mix though so I wasn't worried at the time.
My "rule of thumb" at the moment is to apply the generic limiter with its basic settings - if it's an improvement and sounds good I'll continue to play with it to try and improve things further. If its sounds shit, I'm taking it off and going back to the mix, before trying it again - its almost like a test for my mixes!
Farview
Well-known member
If it was just mixed too loud, simply moving the threshold up would stop the pumping. Most likely, some instrument is up way louder than the rest (at least in comparison to your other mixes) Most likely the drums.
Farview
Well-known member
I'm not sure what "into the red" means on your DAW. Was it up past 0dbfs on the meter? If it was, it's already limited, since 0dbfs is the limit. Anything over that gets cut off.
The trick to creating a mix that can be mastered loud is to keep control of the dynamics in the mix. An overly dynamic mix will always make a mastering limiter pump.
The trick to creating a mix that can be mastered loud is to keep control of the dynamics in the mix. An overly dynamic mix will always make a mastering limiter pump.
RedStone
Active member
Raising the apparent volume can also trick you into thinking something sounds better when it really doesn't.
Limiting isn't supposed to make it sound better. It's supposed to make it louder. To see if it's changing the sound, you will need to level match the before and after using an a/b level match plug in like AB_LM (the JS one for reaper is free and might be included now).
Try the free limiter from Melda plug-ins. It's a lot simpler to use than the JS master limiter. Or there's george Yong's W1 limiter, which is even simpler. You can get pretty loud with W1 and it will sound OK. But anything like loudness war loud will just sound bad.
If you use reaper, switch the master meters to rms. Lower the threshold on the limiter (on the melda, increase the gain) and aim for no more than +3 on the rms meters using the default settings. Set the max output on the limiter to -1
The limiter will take care of making sure there are no digtal overs.
Hope that makes sense.
Limiting isn't supposed to make it sound better. It's supposed to make it louder. To see if it's changing the sound, you will need to level match the before and after using an a/b level match plug in like AB_LM (the JS one for reaper is free and might be included now).
Try the free limiter from Melda plug-ins. It's a lot simpler to use than the JS master limiter. Or there's george Yong's W1 limiter, which is even simpler. You can get pretty loud with W1 and it will sound OK. But anything like loudness war loud will just sound bad.
If you use reaper, switch the master meters to rms. Lower the threshold on the limiter (on the melda, increase the gain) and aim for no more than +3 on the rms meters using the default settings. Set the max output on the limiter to -1
The limiter will take care of making sure there are no digtal overs.
Hope that makes sense.
RedStone
Active member
Too much bass usually creates pumping. Or trying to make something as loud as a red hot chilli peppers album.
If the mix is just bass heavy, gotta find out where and make a gentle broad cut.
Another option - use a multi band compressor to control the bass. First band cut off of 160hz. Ratio of 2, attack and release of 100ms, and tweak the threshold until you see some reduction. Don't compensate for the reduction.
If you have a hot mix, start with the threshold at -10 across the multiband. It's fine to remove all but the bass and one other band for this purpose. If nothing is happening, lower to -15.
I like to use three bands. One cutting of at 160 for the lows, another cutting off at 3.5 kHz for mids. The third band is everything above 3.5khz. I use the same settings across all of the bands.
If the mix is just bass heavy, gotta find out where and make a gentle broad cut.
Another option - use a multi band compressor to control the bass. First band cut off of 160hz. Ratio of 2, attack and release of 100ms, and tweak the threshold until you see some reduction. Don't compensate for the reduction.
If you have a hot mix, start with the threshold at -10 across the multiband. It's fine to remove all but the bass and one other band for this purpose. If nothing is happening, lower to -15.
I like to use three bands. One cutting of at 160 for the lows, another cutting off at 3.5 kHz for mids. The third band is everything above 3.5khz. I use the same settings across all of the bands.
ashcat_lt
Well-known member
I mean, a limiter is supposed to set a limit. Preferably, it will be a little more polite about it than the fixed-point digital ceiling might. This can allow you to increase the average level (the loudness) without quite so much nasty distortion on the peaks.
A limiter by itself (without added gain in or out) really can only make things (peaks) quieter. This reduces the difference between the average and the peaks, and allows you to then turn it up so that the peaks are (almost) as loud as they can get, and the average will be that much louder in comparison.
JDOD
therecordingrebels.com
Guys. This is really handy. I'll read it again when I'm in front of my recording computer
