Master level

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noiseordinance

New member
Heya. So let's say you've got all your tracks laid out and mixed to your liking. And let's say it's rather quiet... like it never goes higher than -15db on the master fader. What do you do? My buddy let me borrow his TRacks suite, and if I recall correctly, you want a little bit of headroom, but not 15db worth. So, do you individually raise each level to get to the desired level? If you have a master compressor on, do you raise the gain on it? Heck, should you even have a master compressor on if you plan on sending it to a mastering suite in the first place?
 
There are gurus here who might give you more solid advice, but if you're sending your tracks to be mastered I wouldn't boost the master at all.
I mean, you're not doing anything the mastering engineer can't do, so why not leave it to him?

I've no idea if there's merit to raising the individual track levels slightly rather than just boosting the master; Maybe someone else can say.
 
Steenamaroo said:
There are gurus here who might give you more solid advice, but if you're sending your tracks to be mastered I wouldn't boost the master at all.
I mean, you're not doing anything the mastering engineer can't do, so why not leave it to him?

I've no idea if there's merit to raising the individual track levels slightly rather than just boosting the master; Maybe someone else can say.
Click to expand...

It's different if you raise the individual tracks as opposed to the master because, as you know, the dB system is not linear.




Like Steen said, if you're sending it to be mastered, DO NOT put a compressor or limiter on the master track. If you just want a louder song, by all means, you're free to do so. Just be careful you don't squash everything.
 
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