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What to do when the mix hits red on the master DB meter?
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| Rodas |
I'm sure some of you guy's have wondered this too.
After you've done your mix and your track is slightly hitting red. Someone told me this is a bad thing? It sounds ok to me, but the master channel is still slightly hitting red.
I've solo'd each channel but that doesn't really wave any red flags.
What to do? Should I just lower the mixer channel? Will this be fixed after I master and normalize?
Anyone with experience, I'd realy appreciate the help.
Thanks guys.
Rodas |
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| R.O.U.D.O.S |
Hi there,
Generally it's not recomended as far as i know to have red hits.
Soloing each channel which doesn't mean that your mix doesn't go on red since when all tracks playing the volumes are added and so you have a higher overall volume that goes on red.
This is what i do. After finishing the mixdown i export of course my track for mastering in wavelab. But before i export i make sure that the master level output is set to a volume that even in the busiest parts of the track the master output level is around -10db. Which means that my exported mix sounds very low in volume. I do that because of the mastering plugins sequence i use. In the end my track sounds almost all the time at 0db and the overall quality is quite pro.
If you like more info, PM me.
Hope i helped. |
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| Subtle |
yeah.. i know what u mean... I used to have the master channel clip all the time.. and I didnt care.. cause it didnt sound too bad anyways.. but still its not recommended.. u shall make it a rule for urself never to export a File which the master is clipping.. simply lower the volume so that the Loudest parts of the track is just under the clipping mark.. export it.. and u will have a low volume... this is when the mastering process starts...
simply load a wave editor and edit the track there,my advice is to use a a compressor so the volume evens out a little... Timeworks Mastering compressor is my choice of compressor..
hope this helps a bit ;) |
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| Beijer |
| I don't know how you guys do it - or what's really the best thing to do, but I always have a compressor on the masterchannel, compressing the whole mix quite alot, and add gain to compensate thye loss of dB. This is of course before the mastering process. This way the mix won't clip - unless you apply too much gain of course! :) |
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| alanzo |
when the dB meter hits the red thing on top, it means the track is clipping which is basically the same as the track distorting.. which both degrade the quality of the track
put a limiter on the mix and then a compressor to make up for the gain (just turn the gain up, don't compress) |
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| R.O.U.D.O.S |
to alanzo :
do you apply first a limiter and then a compressor?
i do exactly the opposite. i always apply the limiter in the end, after i apply everything else like eq, compressor etc.
so, what's he right way for this? what do you think?
to Rodas :
sorry mate for hijacking your thread, but this is very interesting!!
cheers |
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| alanzo |
yes, limiter before maxamizer (compressor)
this way, the limiter limits all the waveform peaks to whatever you set it to, and then the compressor maxamizes them |
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| DRM |
| sorry but all i read is the topic name and all that came into my head was "turn it down" :p |
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| meDina |
Limiter very last in the chain of inserts on a master channel with the out ceiling set to 0.3
The only limiters i use have maximizers built in |
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| TonyZ |
If you start limiting peaks and compressing the rest of the song to match those limited peaks, then whenever your kick hits (which is the normal culprit of clipping) you'll get a fuzzed out, lame woof.
I highly recommend the advice of R.O.U.D.O.S, namely exporting the sound at a low volume, then normalizing it.
You must make absolute sure that the original song is evened out; whether by EQ'ing or volume adjusting. Ideally you want your kicks the same volume as the bass the same as the loudest pad the same as the lead.
Only after they're all even at a low volume do you begin to increase/decrease channels to bring focus onto different elements.
Clipping is by far the worst treatment for speakers. Imagine a nice curve, like the side of an apple. It's a slow transition from core,small to large, then back to the core again. Take a knife now and slice off a piece of the apple. It's now a slow curve, then a straight line, then becomes a curve again.
If you put a sheet of tinfoil across the cut, the sheet of tinfoil would be 0dB. Anything higher is impossible (it's like dividing by 0; it can't be done.) So what does that mean? It's telling the speaker to go from neutral position to maximum extended and then back again. If you've got a kick that tells a speaker to do this, you get a blown speaker REAlly quickly.
So avoid. Red = bad. |
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| State of Matter |
| Yes, do export at a low volume. However, normalizing it alone isnt the answer. The answer is a volume maximizer. The object of mastering is to get the sound to be as loud as possible while mainting its cleanliness. Everything else is actually "mixing." Using a compressor alone to bring the volume up often makes the song overcompressed as tony said and leads to that really lame bouncy woof effect. Volume maximizers in conjunction with compressors is the best way to go. Soundforge's Wavehammer is an excellent tool for just that. If you tweak it just right you should be able to bring up the overall volume of the entire track to 0db and eradicate any forms of clipping. The result is a much louder and fuller track than normalizing without any peaks over 0 db. |
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| ZxZDeViLZxZ |
| ok i have this track right and the problem is with compressiona dn limiting it causes the track to burst and sound very very odd how can i remove this problem. ive been struggling with mastering for a while and usually i end up with this exact problem of the softer parts play fine but when it starts limiting the rest of the track that was clipping i end up with it sounding very very odd like it bleeds a little bit of sound outta no where.... how can i fix this issue as its been driving me crazy and using limiters,peak controllers, compression doesnt matter i cant find the right combination to fix this issue. any advice??? |
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