Rendering meter levels

  • Thread starter Thread starter Muzzaman
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Muzzaman

Muzzaman

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Hey guy's. When I'm ready to render a track in REAPER, where should the meter peak in db's for the best output??

Just curious if there is a sweet spot.

Cheers, Muzza
 
It's not any different in Reaper than it is in any other DAW. It all depends on what you wanna do with the stereo mix. If you plan to send it off to mastering, then you need to find out how your mastering guy wants it.
 
Greg_L said:
It's not any different in Reaper than it is in any other DAW. It all depends on what you wanna do with the stereo mix. If you plan to send it off to mastering, then you need to find out how your mastering guy wants it.
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Fair enough Greg cheers.
 
on a normal pop/rock tune I try not to go over -6
I might hit -4 a few times, but on an average it stays around -6

On softer minimal mixes I might go a bit lower.

always keeping the bit/sample rate the same as the recorded settings
 
When you say -6 and -4, do you mean -0.6 and -0.4? I think I may be doing it wrong. I work and work til it peaks at like -0.2 or -0.3, but nothing anywhere blinks up to zero. I still don't really know what I'm doing with the overall compression on the mix, but I monkey with that so as to try not to have spots that are way too quiet. I try to compare with commercially recorded music in terms of whether the final result seems too quiet or too loud by comparison. Peaking at -6 to -4, would be noticably quieter than commercial stuff. Am I missing something?

J
 
Still no one has stated what these mixes/renders/levels are for. A final'? Take it to -.3 or five peak.
And in digi land mix -baring some basic level abuse gotchas', it's pretty wide open as to where you land.
 
jjjtttggg said:
.. Am I missing something?
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Don't think so. If it was to go through another step -mastering, then use the lower levels.
('Lo-Fi never said one way or the other.. Not sure what he's meaning.
 
I thought the question was concerning the mixing stage

Recording / Mixing / Mastering

after i render (or bounce) the mix at -6, (if i'm also hired to do the mastering) I then open the 24bit mix in another session and apply my mastering effects

in most cases
eq
saturation(if needed)
multi band comp (if needed)
brickwall limiter

then I'm looking for -.01

but i would never never never raise the fader on my "mix" to achieve -0.1 and call it a day(not on a commercial project)
 
jjjtttggg said:
When you say -6 and -4, do you mean -0.6 and -0.4?
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I'm sure he meant -6 and -4 since your post suggests that you're talking about mixing. I even find that a little high, but we're splitting hairs. I get my mixes to peak at about -10. This is for the MIX, not the final master.

If you're doing your own "mastering", as many of us home-recorders do, then you're probably talking about getting it to peak at about -.2, while the average level is around the -12 to -13 mark. This is just my personal way of going about it, so I'm not saying all final "mastered" mixes have to be at those levels. But that's what usually works for me.
 
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RAMI said:
I'm sure he meant -6 and -4 since your post suggests that you're talking about mixing. I even find that a little high, but we're splitting hairs. I get my mixes to peak at about -10. This is for the MIX, not the final master.

If you're doing your own "mastering", as many of us home-recorders do, then you're probably talking about getting it to peak at about -.2, while the average level is around the -12 to -13 mark. This is just my personal way of going about it, so I'm not saying all final "mastered" mixes have to be at those levels. But that's what usually works for me.
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Would it be safe to say that for 'to be mastered mixes' part of the reasoning for a general target range of -10 peak or a bit higher be to accommodate future possible analog processing?
It occurred to me as most of the CD projects I've done for quite a while (we're talking a handful here from my part time digs) do not go to mastering I could probably use a refresh on this myself..
Presuming good level practices from tracking through mixing, it seems that as you are building a good healthy mix you are among other things coming to adjustments in final (or near final) density, perhaps some amounts of peak control, etc.
How much, or how far we go certainly are big variables with style, experience, how far we want to extend into and toward the finished sound prior to mastering.

But ITB' it seems I could make this land pretty much at any (reasonable) level and have the same sounding file?
I guess from another angle, once at that point Master could say "Weedhopper, -10 please." and I..
"Yes Master". Then print a new version. :)
 
I wouldn't take my -10 as any kind of standard, and I have no reason for getting my mixes to peak at about -10. That's why I said I was just splitting hairs. I don't even try to get that level. It just seems to be where they always end up peaking once I've more or less set my levels.

I guess my point (or attempt at making a point) was that you can't mix too "cold". You could only mix too "hot".
 
I don't recall paying a lot of attention to where the levels are when I'm mixing down. I have fairly standard monitoring level settings, so I know when things seem too loud (or too soft). The master generally stays where it is while I mix individual tracks to taste.

When rendering, I sometimes see it pop into the red, in which case I cancel, drop the master level (unless I see that particular tracks themselves are doing this), and start again.
 
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