Meter going into the red?

[coolsoundman]

Hey folks, I'm using the Izotope Ozone 3 plugin, I'm using Sonar, for my master mix and was wondering if its ok for the main channel strip meters to go a little into the red? When I listen to it through my little speakers and my headphones I have no distortion or anything like it. Is this ok to go by or should I lower my volume in the bus or main to bring down the levels into the green?

 

[bennychico11]

in digital, red=clipping
turn down the individual tracks, or put a limiter somewhere

 

[xstatic]

Not always true. Steinberg actually says that you can drive their channels well into the red without any audible distortion, but they do caution against driving any of the master outputs into the red.

 

[Strryder]

On some software meters going into the red does not mean you are clipping, in Sonar 2 the red part of the meter starts at -6, if you're doing a home mastering job and trying to maximize the level with a brickwall limiter, what you don't want is to have the clipping indicators coming on, and of course you don't want to boost the signal feeding the limiter to the point where it starts to sound like ass.

 

[Massive Master]

My *normal* maximum level for tracking and mixing is -6dBfs. No higher. Ever.

Save the volume for the mastering phase - At least you'll start with something clean.