tubedude
New member
I need some help with the digital mix buss procedure here, and urgently.
Which of these would be the preferred method? Currently I do it the 1st way and the difference between what I hear during mixing and then after bouncing to stereo 2 track and dithering is very big. The bass seems less bassy, the high end is not nearly as clear, really big differences here. I'm losing serious quality in the bounce to stereo area. Before bouncing my mixes are sounding great. Afterwards they sound pretty lame. Please help and make suggestions here. I will be looking into a 2 bus deal like the Folcrum or the Dangerous 2 buss in a few months, especially if I cant get a better mix going, but I need a fix for this, now. Using Sonar 3.0
Currently I am recording and mixing 24 bit/44.1, average songs are taking about 16-18 tracks. I do record all my levels as close to digital zero as possible, all of my chain and technique is correct, been doing it for a long time. I bounce to broadcast wave before moving to wavelab and dithering with Apogee UV22.
Here is my current method, number 1:
1) I basically leave my loudest tracks (kick) set at zero on the faders, and bring everything else up around that, so that most of my track levels are pretty high ( -3 to -9 on average) but it hits the main fader pretty hard with that many tracks, so I have to turn down that fader to around -9 to -11 to keep it from going over and lighting up the red. Thats with most of the tracks having a little bit of compression on the at one place or another to control peaks.
Would it be better, worse or the same to:
2) bring all my levels down evenly to where I can leave the master fader at -0 and not have it lighting up the red? I noticed this means bring most of the tracks down a LOT. But, I have not tried bouncing this way yet to see if it works better, but I plan to do that tonight.
Or:
3) Maybe try bouncing drums down seperately, then guitars, then vocals and mixing those 3 maybe with bass? I'm not sure where or why the loss is occurring, but I'm willing to try anything.
4) This is my least desirable idea, I would need more cables and have to add additional conversions which I dont like to do, but will if I have to: Running out 8 mono and 4 stereo tracks at a time to my soundcraft M8 and using its summing buss and moving it back into the computer and then finsihing up from there.
After I am done bouncing down to stereo from Sonar, I move to wavelab, add a few things like timeworks mastering compressor and maybe a little shelf, dither with Apogee UV22HR and I'm done.
What I am hearing before I bounce down is great. What I have afterwards with my current way sucks. I know the bands are all noticing this when they get home with thier stuff. I need a fix before I lose clients.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Paul
Which of these would be the preferred method? Currently I do it the 1st way and the difference between what I hear during mixing and then after bouncing to stereo 2 track and dithering is very big. The bass seems less bassy, the high end is not nearly as clear, really big differences here. I'm losing serious quality in the bounce to stereo area. Before bouncing my mixes are sounding great. Afterwards they sound pretty lame. Please help and make suggestions here. I will be looking into a 2 bus deal like the Folcrum or the Dangerous 2 buss in a few months, especially if I cant get a better mix going, but I need a fix for this, now. Using Sonar 3.0
Currently I am recording and mixing 24 bit/44.1, average songs are taking about 16-18 tracks. I do record all my levels as close to digital zero as possible, all of my chain and technique is correct, been doing it for a long time. I bounce to broadcast wave before moving to wavelab and dithering with Apogee UV22.
Here is my current method, number 1:
1) I basically leave my loudest tracks (kick) set at zero on the faders, and bring everything else up around that, so that most of my track levels are pretty high ( -3 to -9 on average) but it hits the main fader pretty hard with that many tracks, so I have to turn down that fader to around -9 to -11 to keep it from going over and lighting up the red. Thats with most of the tracks having a little bit of compression on the at one place or another to control peaks.
Would it be better, worse or the same to:
2) bring all my levels down evenly to where I can leave the master fader at -0 and not have it lighting up the red? I noticed this means bring most of the tracks down a LOT. But, I have not tried bouncing this way yet to see if it works better, but I plan to do that tonight.
Or:
3) Maybe try bouncing drums down seperately, then guitars, then vocals and mixing those 3 maybe with bass? I'm not sure where or why the loss is occurring, but I'm willing to try anything.
4) This is my least desirable idea, I would need more cables and have to add additional conversions which I dont like to do, but will if I have to: Running out 8 mono and 4 stereo tracks at a time to my soundcraft M8 and using its summing buss and moving it back into the computer and then finsihing up from there.
After I am done bouncing down to stereo from Sonar, I move to wavelab, add a few things like timeworks mastering compressor and maybe a little shelf, dither with Apogee UV22HR and I'm done.
What I am hearing before I bounce down is great. What I have afterwards with my current way sucks. I know the bands are all noticing this when they get home with thier stuff. I need a fix before I lose clients.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Paul
Q.
) and A/B from that track to the 'live multitrack play' -no nasties. 
