Clipping issues

[killthepixelnow]

Hey there. I'm mixing a song right now and have some problems with the LED inidcator. I have like 6 audio tracks and one stereo Master Fader. Well, none of the channels clip when playing but the Master Fader does. Why does it happen?

I'm tempted to lower the volume on all faders but I assume I'm gonna need to pump the volume up again in the "mastering" process to reach the average levels.

Should I ignore the alert and mix as nothing happens of should I pull down the faders?

 

[bennychico11]

nope...the alert is there for a reason. You don't want any clipping anywhere.

The master fader measures the SUM of all your other tracks. You may have 6 individual tracks that don't clip on their own...but when they are all bussed to the master fader they are summed together. And when you sum anything together what happens? Things get BIGGER. In this case, louder.

Think about it. Pretend you're in a room listening to a friend of yours playing a guitar. He starts off playing at the right volume. Now another guy comes in the room and sets up a drum set and starts playing with him. But he's so loud that either the guitar player needs to play louder in order to be balanced with him or you have to tell the drummer to play softer. Then another guy comes in with a bass, the volume in the room gets even louder right? The more instruments you add together, the LOUDER things get. So you have to balance everything together so that not only do they sound balanced together but they're also not too loud for your ears as a whole. The red lights on the individual tracks and on the master fader track tell you when things are too loud.
It's ALWAYS important to have a master fader track.

So you were right in being tempted to lower the volume of the tracks. But then why would you go right back and boost the volume in the "mastering" process? Didn't the master fader just tell you that you were too loud? So boosting the volume is just going to distort things again isn't it?

 

[killthepixelnow]

It all makes sense to me. I wasn't thinking the Master fader as a sum of all the track, just a general volume control (which isn't, right?) Now I'm gonna be more careful when mixing and always check the LED indicator. Thanks.

 

[bennychico11]

It all makes sense to me. I wasn't thinking the Master fader as a sum of all the track, just a general volume control (which isn't, right?) Now I'm gonna be more careful when mixing and always check the LED indicator. Thanks.

that's a common problem with people using Pro Tools. A lot of people think the master fader isn't always necessary unless you want to turn the volume up of all the tracks. The master fader is the stereo buss for your main outputs. It tells you the levels of everything going out to your speakers. So it's ALWAYS imperative that you create a master fader when you create a new session. In fact, I hardly ever watch the individual levels of each track. I mix everything to taste and just watch what my master fader meters are doing.