Pro Tools Mixing Question

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Jimmypop333

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This is a very rookie question, but I've been mixing in protools for a bit now and I just found out about the master fader (very embarrasing). All of my mixes have sounded decent even though they have heavily been peaking on the master fader, what I'm wondering is should I ideally just be mixing it so it does not peak on the master fader at all? and if this is the case I find that all my mixes will be very quiet, is that what mastering is for then? Any help would be great, thanks.
 
I just got through these topics... Check out this thread...Might have to read between the lines a little but it's all there...

Let us know if it doesn't help...
 
what I get from that is I should make sure my master does not go into the red? Even though none of my individual tracks are peaking?
 
Jimmypop333 said:
what I get from that is I should make sure my master does not go into the red? Even though none of my individual tracks are peaking?
Click to expand...

Yes...

Moreover, it is suggested (and intelligently so) to back off the volume even more than "just below peaking"... This is headroom ... Aka... Room for mastering and/or futher processing, etc to be done...

Also, there is concern with consumer cd players when the track peaks SOMEWHERE above -3 dbFS... The cd player's circuitry will clip even at these sub 0 dbFS levels....

Generally though, you're safe as long as the peak light doesn't come on. But I would recommend doing some additional research on the topic asap... This way, you won't create habits that you'll someday be forced to undo (most likely by your to-be mastering house)....
 
Tweak your Peaks

Here are some things I use about getting gain.

When using the master fader, try to find out which tracks are causing your peaks to go high. This might be some particular hard swells or hard snare hits. Go to those tracks and try to attenuate those peaks. Like say you have 3 snare hits that are too loud. Use the audiosuite plug called gain, and reduce those peak waveforms a couple of db. For discrete problem areas, I find that the gain plug works well.

If you tweak the peaks of the tracks that are causing your master fader to clip, you will find that you can run the master fader gain up and therefore get a higher mixed volume level.

You may also need to back off of tracks that are causing the overall levels to run high. Can you live with the drums being just a little bit lower in the mix, or the bass, etc. Backing off some overall track levels will give you more headroom with your master fader, and again, more mixed volume.

Also, take a close look at stereo clipping. Is one side clipping before the other ? You may need to adjust some panning issues to help reduce one side that is clipping. Again, making adjustments for this, you will find that you have more master fader gain. :cool:
 
Keep in mind that in Protools, the master fader meter is POST fader. That means you could keep the meter out of the red by turning down the masterfader, but STILL HAVE CLIPPING ISSUES. Keep your fader at at least 0 when looking for clips. I highly recommend elemental audio's free inspector plugin, it tells you in a lot more detail what's happening with the audio, including a nice spectrum analyzer.

Similar to the above, people often have issues gain staging on inserts. They'll turn things up and clip in a compressor plug for example, and then pass the audio into the next plug and use that to turn down the gain so that the track meter isn't going into the red. The problem is the audio is already clipped, but just turned down after wards. You need to make sure there is no clipping at EVERY STAGE between input to output.
 
Right, you should have the mixer window open checking all track levels while using the master fader. And when you are tweaking plug-ins or inserts, check your track levels for clipping too. Like, when you are using an eq plug in, adding some frequency gain, you can clip there. You would need to reduce either the input gain, or output make up gain of the plug in (I am not sure which is best to adjust ?)
 
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