Hi!
If some one have any good guidelines on have to make sure you don’t clip on your master output, I would be glad to lean about them.
I have a habit of putting every channel as close to 0db as possible. Then there is only
e a question of time before the master channel starts clipping. And usually by then, I’m 10-15 buses in to the project and it’s a pain in the *** to find what needs tweaking.
If someone have good practice of guidelines on this topic I would be ever so happy.
ok a few suggestions:
-start with each channel at -10db. Better yet start with the bass drums at -10db. If this sounds soft, rather turn up your monitors/headphones instead of the channel level.
-balance everything relative to that bass drum. if you can keep everything balanced to the -10db BD, than you will have plenty of room to move later when it comes to the mixdown stage as well as the volume affects caused by bussed tracks.
-as you add effects and processors, these can drive up levels, so make sure the output of each device on each channel is not pushing the levels into the red.
-ideally you wanna tone things down so that the the average master level is -6db with some spikes around -3db at most. Its relatively easy to do this provided you are vigilant on turning down levels at the source of each track from the get go.
Hope this helps!
Yeah you need to be checking each tracks db level from the get go.
Getting everything up to the max is really a bad idea.
Headroom is VERY important for mixing!
So basically what dorond said…
At the end it not only helps mixing and stopping your master from clipping, but it also helps a lot if you wanna dabble in mastering/master your track with a pro.
Thanks guys!
That’s just what I needed.
Now, back to the drawing board with new knowledge.
Pretty much what they said. If you try to keep your mix at around -6db you will have a much easier time avoiding clipping. When you are done you can then stick a limiter (along with any other processing you want to do at this point), set the output to -0.2 or -0.1db and rise the gain or input until you are as close to 0db as you can without your mix starting to sound dull.
This way you have a lot more control over your mix and it will be hell of a lot easier to master at the end.