hi yall i'm getting hi rms levels (-5,-4db's?) for my songs and when I use a limiter to get the mix to -0.3db I get even higher levels, I read somewhere that the rms levels to aim for on pop songs (as mine) is -10db. what can I use to control rms levels other than a limiter. my song sounds decent but too hot. you can check out my song at reverbnation.com/tobyrock
I'd recommend reversing the process a couple of ways. First, a blanket statement like "the proper RMS for pop songsis" is bogus; The RMS to aim for is the one that your ears tell you sounds best, not some arbitrary number. You say yourself your mixes sound to hot. That's a great sign, a lot of people would never hear that. If you really feel you have to crush you mixes (do you really feel that, or are you just following what the unwashed masses are saying?), then crush them until they sound too crushed, and then pull back on the compression just until it sounds OK again.
Second, I would recommend against just throwing your mix against a brick wall at -0.x dBFS. You should work in stages, kind of like carving wood. You don't just cut right to the quick in one shot; you do the rough cut first, to get rid of the bulk and get the rough dimensions, then some chiseling to the basic shape, rough sanding, and finally fine sanding to wind up with the final product.
There are several variations and methods here, here's just one basic variation:
First knock down the dozen or so wild/untamed peaks in your mix manually, either with your volume automation envelope, or highlighting the peaks and knocking down the volume for that region, or redrawing those peaks with the pencil tool. Whichever one you'r emost efficient with using.
Next, try more standard soft knee compression at an easy 2:1 or so, with the threshold set a dB or two above the current RMS level. Follow that up with parametric EQ to get rid of any honkers brought out by the compression.
Then try hard limiting. If you have to push more than 2 or 3 dBs of life out of your mix in order to get the unrealistic volume you wish, then undo the limiting and repeat the previous light compression/paraEQ step a second time.
Try the limiting again. If you still have to squeeze nore than a couple of dB of blood out of your baby at that point to get where you want, it's probably going to sound like it's being pushed too far anyway, in which case be happy with the RMS you got and move on.
The choice is always yours as to where you want to set the balance in traeoff between volume and sound quality. If you feel you are sacrificing too much quality to get to Volume X, then screw Volume X and skip the final steps in that above process at any point you wish. There are NO magic numbers.
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