I want louder drums but they clip. What to do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jokerone
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jokerone

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I have VST drums and I want them louder in the mix, but the show they clipping in Cubase.

Any suggestions?

thanks.
 
turn everything else down?? make the drums the loadest thing then bring everything else to the volume you want against the drums.
 
either turn everything else down or use a compressor.

Haven't used cubase in like a year, but if you have all the other levels besides the drums set to where you want, you can group them and then lower them all at once so you don't have to individually lower each fader.
 
Thanks to all!

One other question, I was reading a bit after I posted this. In this article (I need to read it again to make sure I understand it), it claimed to turn your master mix down to -4db so it the mix can have enough head room for mastering. I assume I read it correctly? Any thoughts?

Avoid clipping in your final mix | Renoise In:Depth
 
what i do at every level is from recording i set peak levels to around the -12db/-9db mark to allow head room while recording, while mixing i mix to around the -6db mark then when mastering i bring the level all the way up to around -0.1db mark. this allows all the head room you would want and avoids clipping.
 
Br3n said:
what i do at every level is from recording i set peak levels to around the -12db/-9db mark to allow head room while recording, while mixing i mix to around the -6db mark then when mastering i bring the level all the way up to around -0.1db mark. this allows all the head room you would want and avoids clipping.
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Cool. thanks. I'll give it a try.
 
You will have the rest of the tracks too loud, and also your monitoring volume will be too low.

G
 
There is more to making things sound "louder" than just cranking up their fader or moving the other faders down. With drums, some compression can help. However, more than putting compression on each track, I am a fan of parallel compression. Just googling how to do it you should find many "how-to's". Take a look at this one:

FaderWear Guides - Need a Fat Drum Sound? Parallel Compression Guide

Also, You have to also realize that there is an entire frequency spectrum that when you have a whole mix, everything is "fighting" for frequency space. If you want more clarity in your mix and more balance, then eq slightly to reach the balance. For example, If you have alot of guitars, maybe consider pulling back some of the low frequencies to allow for the kick drum to fill in the frequency space. That is just a quick example, and each mix will be different.
 
The best solution for this problem is simply turning everything else down. it's not that complicated really.
 
RAMI said:
The best solution for this problem is simply turning everything else down. it's not that complicated really.
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Well said Rami. Straight to the point. I like that!
(Hows your drumming coming along anyway? Not spoke in a while.)

G
 
I can't believe "turn everything else down" has to be explained. Well, I can believe it, but it's pretty sad. :facepalm:
 
ecktronic said:
You will have the rest of the tracks too loud, and also your monitoring volume will be too low.

G
Click to expand...

I had no idea where to start , so I figured if I played a few songs on CDs from itunes to adjust the level would be a good place to start. what I found out was those songs varied quite a bit. I chose
A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall - Edie Brickell/New Bohemians from the Born on the Fourth of July sountrack. I've always found this to be one of the loudest recordings I know. I also picked a few others.

In the end I don't know if I learned anything other from that. You guys have been a big help though. thank you very much.
 
You're comparing your un-mastered mix to mastered mixes. Apples and oranges. The mixing stage is not the stage where you should be worrying about volume. That happens after you're happy with your mix and take it to the "mastering" level.
 
RAMI said:
You're comparing your un-mastered mix to mastered mixes. Apples and oranges. The mixing stage is not the stage where you should be worrying about volume. That happens after you're happy with your mix and take it to the "mastering" level.
Click to expand...

thanks!
 
RAMI said:
You're comparing your un-mastered mix to mastered mixes. Apples and oranges. The mixing stage is not the stage where you should be worrying about volume. That happens after you're happy with your mix and take it to the "mastering" level.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't be worrying about volume, but you should be worrying about the mix and balance of all the tracks. And, at least in my opinion, getting the right balance between the tracks is not a mastering issue, it's a mixing issue.
 
10 people standing around,
everyone shouts,
who's the loudest?
I would advice you to google gain staging - it will be eye opener
I learn so much from it, was incorrect about so important thing
here :
The Reason Most ITB mixes don
over 100 posts...I know - but this subject (gain staging is very important for anyone involved in sound engineering)
it's a lot of info and it will make your mixes/productions sounds at least 1level up !
you need to learn it, and know it - simply as that
 
phriq said:
You shouldn't be worrying about volume, but you should be worrying about the mix and balance of all the tracks. And, at least in my opinion, getting the right balance between the tracks is not a mastering issue, it's a mixing issue.
Click to expand...
Yes, you should be worrying about the mix and balance of all the tracks. That's what mixing IS, to a great extent. I'm talking about overall volume. It doesn't matter how low the overall mix is during the mixing stage.
 
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