Making sure I understand goals of Mixing/Limiting

[King83]

This is more of a general question from a newcomer to the world of home recording. Perhaps we'll start with what I'm aware of (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong)

As far as I can gather from what I've read around the web on forums and guides the goal of mixing is to get all of the audio tracks/channels to ride around the 0db mark on the master channel. The closer you can get them to be a continuous 0db the better/easier it will be to master and you will have no clipping (hopefully) and you get a fuller sound.

So the limiting helps with this I gather... but I don't actually know what to do with it. I put one on the master channel and set it to 0db and that's pretty much it... however it doesn't sound like it's limiting, and every now and then a cymbal crash etc will spike into the clipping range. Am I doing this wrong? Am I expecting too much from the limiter? Presumably I should just go in to the drums and reduce the cymbals until they don't clip spike?

Thanks! Any other related tips would be awesome

[garageband]

As far as I can gather from what I've read around the web on forums and guides the goal of mixing is to get all of the audio tracks/channels to ride around the 0db mark on the master channel. The closer you can get them to be a continuous 0db the better/easier it will be to master and you will have no clipping (hopefully) and you get a fuller sound.

This isn't really right. Keep your peaks of the mix at around -6dB so you can concentrate on the mix. Identify those couple of high spots and deal with them at the track level. That will make mastering smoother and easier.

[tacman7]

If your doing your own Pseudo mastering you want it to come out pretty loud so 0dbish.


At least I do. Depends on what your target audience is. If it's going to be played alongside commercial songs it needs to be loud or it will sound really weak.

That's the way music is now days, no dynamics, no soft parts, made for playing in the car, if the music gets soft, you can't hear it because of car noise.

I use a lot of different compressors rather than limiting. Compressors that emulate vintage equipment, close as I'm going to get to vintage equipment.

-6 is about how I export my songs from cubase then run it through 3 compressors in Sound Forge for my 'mastering'.

Squishy

[King83]

only two responses but it sounds like perhaps style of music and experience are the best teachers here. I'm doing mostly metal (death, black, melodic) - looks like messing around might be the way to go but I want to make sure I'm messing around in the right context.

Mixing really more about EQing the frequencies to make sure things come through pretty crystal and aren't fighting each other and then compress, limit, etc to bring the volume up to 0db since I likely won't be doing too much external mastering.

Should I be concerned that if the levels are peaking around 0db to +2db and the volume slider on the master channel is at like -4db? Seems like it's irrelevant as long as the end result sounds clip free and the like. Thoughts?

Also - is it better to Eq a track while the whole song is playing back or isolate just the one track? I would think the whole mix as that's where you hear it but not sure. Thanks for helping out a noob guys.

[garageband]

Should I be concerned that if the levels are peaking around 0db to +2db and the volume slider on the master channel is at like -4db? Seems like it's irrelevant as long as the end result sounds clip free and the like. Thoughts?

No clipping is what you want.

Also - is it better to Eq a track while the whole song is playing back or isolate just the one track? I would think the whole mix as that's where you hear it but not sure.

Feel free to do both.

[Electriclight]

Originally Posted by King83

only two responses but it sounds like perhaps style of music and experience are the best teachers here. I'm doing mostly metal (death, black, melodic) - looks like messing around might be the way to go but I want to make sure I'm messing around in the right context.

Mixing really more about EQing the frequencies to make sure things come through pretty crystal and aren't fighting each other and then compress, limit, etc to bring the volume up to 0db since I likely won't be doing too much external mastering.

Should I be concerned that if the levels are peaking around 0db to +2db and the volume slider on the master channel is at like -4db? Seems like it's irrelevant as long as the end result sounds clip free and the like. Thoughts?

Also - is it better to Eq a track while the whole song is playing back or isolate just the one track? I would think the whole mix as that's where you hear it but not sure. Thanks for helping out a noob guys.

You can always make it louder but you can't fix clipping. I hav efound that erroring on the low side gives better sound overall. Then use some compression as needed. Yes, do put a limiter on the stereo output bus set a 0dB output, just to catch any errant peaks.

The main fader really shouldn't need tweaking. Adjust and balance the individual tracks to get your summed output where it needs to be.

EQing individual tracks helps very much. Cut low frequencies on stuff to make room for Bass and Kick. There is an art to cutting notches with EQ to make sonic space for each instrument's voice. EQ on the ffinal mix should be very minimal. Ask yourself what is creating the problem to begin with and fix it there.

[bassafro]

Hello King83,

Though I am experianced in recording and mixing, atleast I would like to think so, I am still still trying to learn mastering.
As I understand it your digital mix should never touch 0db.You can get very close like -0.1 db but not 0.
I usually do -0.1 db what ever kind of music and watch the RMS for every mix. Now keeping this in mind all your concerns should be the overal eq and the RMS power of your mix. Please note that if your peak is -0.1 it doesen't mean you are loud enough, if your goal it to make it loud offcourse.
But take care when you use limiter and comproser. If it is too much for the kind of music you are making the overal tone and feel of your music might head in the directin you don't want.

Please correct me if I am wrrong here.

Good luck.