Can we put utility in master bus and decress volume instead of decreasing volume on every single channel if sound is good?
Or
Is it necessary to mixdown every single channel?

 

Yes, you can do this. But if you have a clean, step by step mix structure this is not necessary.

You can do basically everything you want. The better question would be "is it advisable?". And no, it's not.

I have given this advice in another thread already: The most important decision of where to make which processing is understanding the signal path of a mixing console.

(Even if I have no clue how to formulate the last sentence properly because im a non native english speaker but I think you get what I want )

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019

For which purpose? Is the input of the master bus above 0dBFS? If yes and the leveling tool's input isn't clipping, then yes. If your DAW is set to 32 or 64bit floating point and you export it this way, it isn't even necessary.

If you want to avoid a master bus input above 0dBFS in the the future you can also use a final stereo pre-master bus to which you route all your signals and lower this fader so the master isn't clipping. You'll need to set your DAW to 32 or 64bit FP resolution, ofc (so this pre-master bus' input isn't clipping), but then you can export in 16bit without any problems.

Also in most DAWs you can select all faders and lower them at once, you only have to leave the fx-returns (reverb...) where they are.

 

@Patel Jay Kumar
Hi,

Also, this is a misnomer of yours. Either through language difference or technical understanding. IF you did that, you would just be Bouncing down/Printing/Exporting each track, and still have to Mixdown!
However you get to the point of having the 2buss mixdown/stereo out bounce, to be able to master the mixed-down track, is up to you.
If an instrument or vocal track has a lot of plugins on it, eating CPU, I would bounce it to audio anyway.
It is not imperative to have to create audio from all individual tracks prior to creating your stereo mix for mastering.

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019

IMO Everything sounds better done individually in the mix , alternatively make a VCA link to everything you wanna trim down the volume on. for various creative mixing reasons

 

@YFManagement I doubt that this statement:-

will make any sense to the Indian person you are addressing.
Particularly because it doesn't make any sense in English.
You need to be more specific.
No disrespect intended.

Agreed on creating subgroups for mixdown, though.

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019

Worry not. Look at my sig, in no time you can master English

 

If you were in an analog domain, where every change in gain would result in more or less artifacts, then you'd be better no to do it, but since i assume you work in digital then there's no downside to that, however if you mixed correctly and left some headroom you wouldn't need to do that.
I suggest you to start with the most important element in your mix and set it at -8db, and then start mixing on that, so that you have 8db of headroom. For example in EDM the most important thing is the kick drum, I start mixing setting it to -8db and then I add all the other things above it. You'll never need to turn down the gain on the master bus.

 

in simple form if you are already satisfied with the "MIX" a simple Volume Trim Plugin In The First FX Insert on the master should do the job. (In-Considerate of the plugins you put after and/if limiting)

 

that was what i was implementing with "individually Trim per channel" because that also apply with analog emulated plugins as well , I'd say every channel gain staging level should be checked "per plug-in". sound excessive but well worth the output quality on your summing box or master output.

" With a lot of time with my own mixed record going to final stages before mastering, I find that it was way better to treat individual sound at its source other then the sub mix or frozen channel which i do with everything i produce & record. Perfect a sound in "Levels , Quality , Width , Unwanted-Frequencies , Flavor" #LQWUF then i freeze after i listen to it in a whole context"

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019

Another option, before starting your mixdown put a utility plugin on the master bus (last plugin) with +6db gain added, Mix into this getting your levels close to zero, even if the odd transient hits over 0db into the red its fine.
When happy with the mix turn off the utility plugin, you'll have 6db or more of headroom for Mastering.
Its more of a psychological trick on yourself, works wonders or alternatively just gain stage accordingly.

 

@YFManagement

Lol! nonsense grammar again. Makes no sense in English; how will it make sense to an Indian person?
Just sayin'.
"and/if" is the problem here.

 

@Patel Jay Kumar,
There's no problem with using the utility. If you tracks sometimes go into red, that's ok too as long as your master itself doesn't go into red.

Here's why guys here tell you to learn proper "gain staging", which basically just means proper volumes that things should be at: hardware devices and some plugins that emulate hardware sound different depending on how loud the signal going into them is. So they're trying to warn you about that, if your mix uses plugins like that, they might sound weird and overloaded if you feed them your louder tracks that are going into the red... But if the mix sounds good to you, you don't have that problem so knock yourself out and just use the utility on master. Also not all hardware-emulating plugins act this way, a lot of them don't care about the exact volume and work fine on anything. And another thing, even if you overload a plugin, it might actually sound quite good for the mix, especially if the track only pops in the red rarely and for a split second.

In many DAWs you can shift-click (or something like that) as many tracks as you want and adjust them together while keeping the relative volumes of the tracks intact. Useful to know sometimes.

 

Last edited: Mar 17, 2019