what actions do i need to proactively take during production/mixing to ensure that the end master will not be distorting badly at high volumes?

thanks

 

I don't think there's a recipe for. Like in: turn that knob, dial in this setting and you're good.
I guess you should test drive and learn what works on high volumes. The quality of the P.A. system is also a factor.

 

Can you rephrase the question? Define "high volumes". What is distorting and why is it distorting? Not powerful enough amp/active PA?

Or do you mean you don't know how to apply healthy gain-staging? Learning gain-staging is the most basic thing and ought to be the first thing you learn.
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/gain-staging-what-it-is-and-how-to-do-it.html

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2022

Tell your listeners to use larger speakers if they want to hear your mix at high volume.

 

1. Every preamp, amp or monitor has a limit where it starts to distort.
2. Songs with high LUFS cause distortion in these more quickly than songs with a lower LUFS.
3. Test it at high volume?

 

You have in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) a " Master Out with a 0dB indicator, you must always
stay below the 0dB limit, above zero distortion (clipping) starts and the track becomes unusable.

I took a picture of the Main Out output - see attachment.

 

If your mix is clean and doesn't redline over 0dB... it's their problem

 

Maybe lower everything else down in terms of volume to make sure that the instruments you want to stick out are being heard while not being over the 0db threshold line..?

 

Headroom.......Mix with the master at -12 or below. Make sure no instruments go above this. You can bring it up in mastering. Something I have discovered is that after getting a good mix this way bring the mix into a track on your DAW...Put a Sonible Limiter on the track
and play the track for it to listen and adjust. After this add a IK Multimedia Classic Multiband Limiter on the master and set it to Super Loud Lim. I have been getting mixes very loud and CLEAN like this....Below -6 LUFS

 

Last edited: Jul 24, 2022

If you are producing/mixing all inside the box there is the Clip to Zero Method that works very well with loud genres. Basically is mixing with against a limiter on the master, a bunch of clipppers/limiters on busses and individual channels to control peaks everywhere and your anchor sounds hitting 0dbs. Also I´m curious what the pros in this forum have to say about this method.

 

I don't know if I correctly understood your question but if you trying to avoid your master of unwanted clipping at all costs just make sure there's is no TRUE PEAK OVER 0 DBFS happening (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING), if there's no true peak clipping happening then there's no reason to be afraid, the only way your song can distort is if someone make a bad conversion of your audio file or if someone pushes their sound system too hard (which wouldn't have anything to do with your track anyways).

 

By distortion you mean any kind of sonic rubbish?

First, make sure your source sounds are clean enough. Turn up the volume on your speakers, listen to the sounds one by one.
Any rubbish you hear would be amplified by pretty much any processing other than EQ cuts or gates.
So do just that. Cut the rubbish one way or the other, re-record or replace the irreparable sounds, proceed to the next stage.

Set all the sounds' volumes so they *peak* around -6 dB. Or just set all the faders to -6. The point is, make sure nothing clips and everything has some way to go before clipping.

Use the faders to balance things out. Whenever you add any processing to the sound, make sure that the sound's overall volume hasn't changed.
Repeat the first step every now and then to make sure you haven't reintroduced or created some sonic rubbish back. This goes for individual sounds as well as busses, including the mix buss. Use the faders to balance things out again.

Your mix will sound quiet, that's fine. Up the volume with the good limiter right before the final output.
Make sure it doesn't clip. Make sure nothing ever clips unless you want it to.

Once you're comfortable with mixing and kinda understand what you're doing, feel free to throw any of these (and any other) rules out the window and try things your way.

 

I'm confused. Yes, you should avoid any signal above 0dB FS fixed point, but how is this related to

?

 

lower all the faders then bring them up a bit at a time, drums and bass first then the others and check the output, adding more increase the overall volume, must be al least -10 to -12, need some headroom for the final master

 

"what actions do i need to proactively take during production/mixing to ensure that the end master will not be distorting badly at high volumes?"

My general answer to that is to avoid having the END MASTER clipping above 0dbFS True Peak. Since I don't have details I can only have a general assumption. I could elaborate on methods to achieve that during the mixing stage but OP doesn't seem to be very specific or engaged in the first place.

 

(This answer is kept very simple because it is beginner knowledge).

I answered very simply and directly to his question. he would please not exceed the O dB limit at the output, because then clipping starts and the recording is unusable. Many dB displays show the exceeding of the 0 dB limit in red because of this, also when converting to WAV or MP3 some DAW's show a warning "you exceeded the 0 dB limit".

 

Can't really tell for sure, but something tells me this is the typical "dostorting limiter" conundrum, so high level=loud master

 

It looks way more like "I turned up the volume and started hearing garbage" conundrum to me.

 

Leave all the Faders at 0. In Ableton bring in a Utility plugin on all tracks. Adjust the utility until the tracks are below -12. I dont know about other DAWS. You can turn up the volume on your interface to compensate. Get your mix sounding good this way then export. Bring it in on a single track in your DAW. Add a Sonible Limiter. Play the track and the limiter will adjust. Add a IK Multimedia Classic Multiband Limiter on the master. Set the Classic Limiter to Super Loud Lim. You should be able to get well below -8 LUFS with this.

 

Be adviced, that "don't touch the faders" superstition comes from analog consoles, where fader controlled the amplifier and was only linear at unity gain. In a digital world, you can touch your faders as much as you like, as long as you mind the routing and gain structure of your mix.