How loud should I mix????

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saul84aguilar

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I havent done much recording yet and you can probably tell by the question but here it is.
How loud should my monitors be when mixing/mastering?
I am using a mackie onyx 1620 with firewire card, and a pair of krk rokit 8s.
On my last project my mixes were very loud. I am guessing i should probably bring the faders down and my monitors up. Is this correct?
 
"Somewhere around" 85dBSPL is the range where your hearing is arguably most accurate across the spectrum.

Granted - The first thing you should do is properly calibrate your monitoring chain. Then, you need to "learn what that level feels like."

Then, a whole new world is going to open up...
 
As far as monitor levels, here a discussion on that subject:

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/columns/gstep/index.php?id=84

As to whether that has anything to do with your mixes being loud is uncertain. If you're keeping your mix below clipping, it shouldn't necessarily be intrinsically louder than any other mix. If, however, you are over-compressing the mix or pushing your mix well into clipping, those would be the most likely causes. in such cases, then, yes, you almost certainly be pulling you mix levels down and/or easing back on the compression.

G.
 
wow
thanks for the link
simple and straight forward
Thx
 
I got rid of clipping offending channels by plugging a limiter on that channel does that sound bout right?
 
My routine:

1. Mix with a low volume
2. Remix at moderate volume
3. Remix at high volume
4. Listen at lower volume again.
5. Burn a quick copy, listen to track in a good stereo, a car stereo, and a cheap boom box making notes on any issues.
6. Go back, fix problems, listen at all 3 volumes before finalizing it.

May seem like a lot here, but tell me honestly, how many times have we all got the "greatest mix ever" then find ourselves remixing a week later because of an oversight?
 
saul84aguilar said:
I got rid of clipping offending channels by plugging a limiter on that channel does that sound bout right?
Click to expand...

In all honesty, not really.

This will still end up effecting your main 2 buss level in an adverse way.

One of the better solutions would would be to trim all your channels by an equal amount. (maybe by 6 to 10 dB) -- This way you can still have a half decent amount of headroom in your final mix.

It's very easy when you first start out mixing to just keep pushing "everything" up.

Try to distinguish what is loud in the mix and pull that down (rather than bringing the low stuff up), that way your not slamming the ceiling.
 
makes alot of sense and i found that out very fast after my first few mixes
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
As far as monitor levels, here a discussion on that subject:

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/columns/gstep/index.php?id=84
Click to expand...

I'm just curious about one thing Glen....why do you choose to use A weighted instead of C weighted?

I agree that A-weighted is a "standard"...but if I'm not mistaken, A-weighted became the standard for measuring low-level industrial noise in work environments, whereas C-weighted is more in tune with the wider bandwidths found in music and better focused on measuring peak levels, as would occur in music, rather than continuous, static levels one finds with workplace noise.

If you set 85dB SPL A-weighted...it's will register a good 5dB SPL or more louder when you then switch the meter to C-weighted.

Anyway...I guess it's not a *critical* choice...A or C, though I prefer to use C weighted when setting my control room level. It's just "safer", so when you do decide to crank it up a bit a times, you're starting from a lower SPL position. Your ears stay fresher longer with 85dB SPL C-weighted....IMO.
 
miroslav said:
I'm just curious about one thing Glen....why do you choose to use A weighted instead of C weighted?
Click to expand...
I agree that it's not a deal breaker either way, and that there are arguments for both. As such, this is not something that I'll argue or defend with the zest that I have been known to display for other things ;).

But that said, the main reason I chose A-weighting is because the weighting curve more closely resembles the average Fletcher-Munson response curves for human hearing. If you look at the weighting curves, C-weighting is a much flatter weighting that tends to emphasize the bass frequencies more than the human ear typically does. A-weighting is not a perfect representation of human response either, of course, but IMHO it more closely resembles what our ears pick up than C-weighting does:

weight_curves.jpg


G.
 
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From a frequency response curve...yeah, kinda/sorta.

I think it was the SPL aspect that made C-weighted my choice.
IOW...with the peak nature and the sub-lows of modern music, the A-weighted doesn't pick up on those things as well, (though they are still there).

But agreed that it's not enough of a difference to pick over...
...though, it's been a bit slow around here lately. ;)

Maybe I should respond to the "To pan or not to pan" thread...? :D
 
Yeah, either way, the key is that one should be able to tell when they are taking care of their ears and when they aren't, and when they can hear what's happening in the music and what isn't, regardless of what some meter says.

Like I said in the article, I move my volume around all the time depending upon exactly what task I have in front of me at the time, and it's pretty easy to tell when I turn it up when too loud is too loud. Especially nowadays when one has nearfields staring them right in the face; too loud comes pretty quickly ;).

G.
 
Right...once you have a visual of where the knob should be for 85dB SPL...you still adjust as needed, but at least your eyes can tell you when you are going too far from the 85dB SPL position since your ears will start to lie to you after awhile at louder levels.

It's just a reference point...nothing more....though I will say that once I did the initial measurements with the SPL meter way back...and experienced what was *85dB SPL*...I consciously stayed with that level for most sessions, and in doing that I retrained my ears to listen at that level, whereas before that, it was too easy to keep bumping up the Volume knob.
Now I don't push the volume as much as in the past...I don't like going too loud when mixing.
However, I still like to push my guitar amps a bit louder, though it's not at ear-bleed levels by any means, but it's also louder than 85db SPL! :)
I gotta have a little more punch when I’m playing the guitar. :D
 
I gotta say that I've noticed a big difference since switching to nearfields. When I have 500W of loudspeaker staring me in the face from 3 feet away, 85dB SPL seems awfully LOUD to me as compared to when I had 3-way room speakers mounted across the room. I know 85dB is 85dB, but somehow there is a perceived difference to me. These days I am almost never tempted to go much louder than that, and when I do go that loud, it's more of a "just checking" moment that does not last for very long.

Man, if I tried working at 85 dBSPL all day long, my brain would be little more than a pool of jelly at the bottom of my skull (no jokes about it being too late for me to worry about that :p). Maybe when I go back to room monitors that will change, we'll see.

G.
 
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