In one of the sticky threads, there is a link to a mastering tutorial that says you should never increase the DB to make your track louder when mastering. If you increase during your mix, it gets crackly and such. So my question is, why wouldnt you just increase the DB?

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Well, I always hardlimit my mixes using the waves L2 - as the final stage. Simply juicing up the input level will just add distortion. I dunno if I aswered you question, but..

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Originally posted by Beijer Well, I always hardlimit my mixes using the waves L2 - as the final stage. Simply juicing up the input level will just add distortion. I dunno if I aswered you question, but..

Well that might answer my question from my other thread, why i may be getting crackling (distortion noises), but what i dont understand is how come it only happens at certain points and is not consistent.

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There might be some points where the mix exceeds 0dB.. For example you have a crash that isn't well compressed, it might push the mix over that point. I always limit my mixes to -3dB more or less in fl, and normalize it in a waveditor, before I apply mastering. That way I'm sure there won't be any clipping. It might be a bad way of doing it, but that's the way I'm doing it anyway!

how can you master after you normalise your mix, you need headroom!

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I add a multiband compressor first. That gives me headroom, then I add eq - then I maximize. Works pretty well for me.

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Originally posted by Beijer I add a multiband compressor first. That gives me headroom, then I add eq - then I maximize. Works pretty well for me.

I suggest going about it the other way around. If you compress first and then EQ, you end up 'distorting' the waveform again by creating 'spikes' as you boost or cut frequencies.

First EQ the track if it hasn't been mixed down properly, and then strap a multiband compressor across it. After that you can use a limiter.

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.: Atlantis [Atlantean Records]

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That's not a bad idea. I didn't think it would be a problem though, as I usually just cut freqs when mastering. I'll try to add the multiband compressor after eq, and see if it's any different.

Cheers

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Originally posted by Beijer That's not a bad idea. I didn't think it would be a problem though, as I usually just cut freqs when mastering. I'll try to add the multiband compressor after eq, and see if it's any different. Cheers

Oddly enough, cutting frequencies can still cause the waveform to increase in other places.

Compressing after equalising in this context is something I started doing a while ago after I thought about what I was actually doing. And I can tell you the results are far superior, since it allows you to actually 'grab' all of the audio effectively by reducing everything down, without any stray peaks appearing later on to mess the compression effect up.

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.: Atlantis [Atlantean Records]

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this is usually my process..

1. tiny EQ cuts on the entire mix
2. multiband comp
3. limit to around -2dB never limit to 0dB as this can cause distortion on some (older) cd players

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man. i dont master at all. i kind of do that on the fly. and im always right up against 0 dB. squashing every last bit of headroom out of my track. no holding stuff back for later. har har! i just bounce and thats that. probably a very bad way of doing things though :O

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Originally posted by Derivative man. i dont master at all. i kind of do that on the fly. and im always right up against 0 dB. squashing every last bit of headroom out of my track. no holding stuff back for later. har har! i just bounce and thats that. probably a very bad way of doing things though :O

probably yeah


Well the EQing before compression is a true thing but remeber that you have the possibility to compress, EQ and then compress again to level things out a bit. Works fine for me if it's needed (although a good mixdown should only need EQ and then compression but we don't live in a perfect world )

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