Hi, i am currently using the latest version of Ableton, and when i put Ozone 5 on the master channel, and use the maximiser, i get a clean mix which sounds perfect in Ableton and with no clipping. I use a plugin called PSP PPM 2 which is like a VU meter, but shows perceived loudness as opposed to actual loudness, and therefore I can add 2-4 dB on the master volume. The final signal still doesnt clip, however, when i listen to the song in iTunes, it sounds like its distorting and when i put one the wav file back into ableton with no chnages at all, just the final render, the signal clips.br
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I dont understand this and if anyone could help out that would be great, thanks
Okay, I’m not 100% clear on what you’re saying… When you say you’re using a VU meter so you can add 2-4db of gain on the master, are you increasing the master Ableton fader or anything after Ozone, or are you increasing the gain going into the Ozone maximizer?br
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I am not familiar with Ozone specifically but the majority of those modern limiter/maximizers approach and sometimes use hard-clipping at certain settings. If you’re absolutely slamming the limiter it might not be hard-clipping but when you export, if a sample-rate conversion occurs you might get overshoots which are hard-clipped. br
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In iTunes, if it’s an MP3/AAC version you’re playing the conversion to those will cause hard-clipping if your track has been slammed into the limiter with no headroom.br
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In Ableton, when you reimport the wav, if your audio engine is running at a higher sample rate than the wav and Ableton’s Hi-Q mode is engaged, Ableton will oversample the file - this process will introduce over-shoots if you’ve absolutely slammed the limiter and is a common effect seen if you import a loud “pro” track into a Live session.br
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Make sure you aren’t hitting the limiter too hard. Make sure the limiter is the last process in your chain, and leave Ableton’s master fader at 0db. It is usually suggested good practice to leave about -0.1 to -1db of headroom after the limiter (it’s a bit pointless in my opinion, but is considered ‘proper’). As long as you follow those rules you should be safe.br
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One last note, read the Ozone manual, there may be certain settings which are less ‘limiter’ and more ‘hard-clipper’. All of the tips above a rendered pointless if you’re using a clipping mode. As I said I don’t know Ozone, but Elephant, Pro-L, and most of the big names have some kind of clipping settings. So learn what they are and avoid them if that’s what you’re after.