Compressor questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter REEK BROCK
  • Start date Start date
REEK BROCK

REEK BROCK

MR. LAST WORD
I need some compressor help.I was told to never let your levels go red.Am I mixing wrong ,do I need a limiter,I am layering the drums I have now I just turn them down so I won't get distortion.I have some cheap speakers and cheap headphones.I want my beats to knock but not tothe point thatyou cant hear the elements of the track its self.
 
First off, what are you mixing on/in?

The simple solution, if you're mixing in the box, is to turn down the master bus until you're not in the red. I try to keep my peaks at -3db, which leaves me plenty of headroom for mastering.

The key here is, TURN IT DOWN. Sometimes when I'm mixing a track, I'll have my master bus turned down to -9db so I'm in the clear. You can simply turn up your monitors to make up for the lack of volume while you're mixing. You shouldn't ever really incorporate a limiter in your mixdown process, that's a great way to piss off a mastering engineer like myself. :)

You want to preserve as much of the dynamics as possible when mixing. You'll gain back your volume loss in the mastering process through compression and limiting.

So, to keep it simple... Turn it down in your mixing console to avoid the red, and compensate through your monitors during mixing. Don't use a limiter during mixdown, as you'll gain back the volume loss in mastering.
 
Change of POETS said:
First off, what are you mixing on/in?

The simple solution, if you're mixing in the box, is to turn down the master bus until you're not in the red. I try to keep my peaks at -3db, which leaves me plenty of headroom for mastering.

The key here is, TURN IT DOWN. Sometimes when I'm mixing a track, I'll have my master bus turned down to -9db so I'm in the clear. You can simply turn up your monitors to make up for the lack of volume while you're mixing. You shouldn't ever really incorporate a limiter in your mixdown process, that's a great way to piss off a mastering engineer like myself. :)

You want to preserve as much of the dynamics as possible when mixing. You'll gain back your volume loss in the mastering process through compression and limiting.

So, to keep it simple... Turn it down in your mixing console to avoid the red, and compensate through your monitors during mixing. Don't use a limiter during mixdown, as you'll gain back the volume loss in mastering.
Click to expand...


Sorry to hijack the thread... but..

I am going to be doing some poor man's mastering on my tracks that I take to battles... Should I mix, then render to WAV, create a new project, and then begin the process? Is this the best way to go about it?

Thanks for your help
 
Yes, render your mixdown to wav or aif.

Mastering is massaging the entire track (technically a group of tracks that make up an album) through EQ, Compression, Limiting, Reverb (sometimes).
 
Ya, like Chnage said, have you level down. I normally have every fadder half way and not all the way up. This gives more room in mixing to bring thing up. Use a maximizer to bring your mix back up to the main level. This will stop your mix from clipping.
 
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