Hmm, so is the limiter even necessary? I mean if I make my master like -1dB peak, shouldn't that be enough?

 

1. 32 bit converters exist, with huge dynamic range, less noise etc. It is NOT expensive. Same price as any HQ 24 bit adc dac. 768 khz also exist.
2. Digitally internally 32 bit float or fixed, 64 bit float, 80 bit float, double/extended precision are way better than any AD/DA converters on market, because it is inside your pc, converters are all still way worse, do you want it or not.
3. It is better to work 32 bit float or way higher. Save your clipped file as 32 bit float wav (with fader, NOT with plugin) , it Will be clipped as hell, but then again load it into daw and set your fader quieter and it Will be quieter and NOT clipped. Because floating point Saves audio above 0 dBFS, and you can simply unclip it.
4. More bits better for processing and overprocessing. That's why we have 192 khz, oversampling etc, yes we dont hear it and most of speakers, monitoring systems don't output these frequency. This stuff is NOT for listening and animals, but for aliasing killing, for pitching, decramping near Nyquist area for filters and eqs that work at hi freq area. Same for higher bit depths and floating point, for quantization error killing, truncation avoiding, clipping avoiding.

 

Last edited: Sep 19, 2018

And I said to myself "this is gonna be solid advice"
But for real, lowering the gain on the master channel was in THIS PARTICULAR CASE the most easy way to get there.

 

use the input trim on the plugins , dial them back first so the meters say -18db peak , and work from there, this way the analog-emu plugins will really shine. the signal will be very low so you can start to boost them with the compressors and preamp plugins.

 

I've got 99 problems but a clip ain't one... ....no wonder nobody got my joke about clipping....

 

Last edited: Sep 21, 2018

I'm confused

Song still sounds a little bit too quiet for me.


Ozone shows peak at -1 so should I boost track by 1dB? Is it how this works?

 

Loudness isn't only the peak value.How you will perceive a mix powerfull comes from a great mix too.For example the masking effect,if you have your kick and your bass hitting the same frequencies,they eat the headroom.Try some EQ,sidechain compression...

If you have the kick hitting -1db peak but the all others tracks (without your kick) hitting -14db,you get a low rms level for the whole mix.

Like another member said (and it is how I do),put a limiter or a compressor on your different busses or tracks to control their dynamic...But quietly!

 

I'm confused because now I don't really know how to set the maximizer so it sounds good :P
I mean i got my track on -1dB and what should I do now to make this track sound "good, energetic and ?louder?"

 

Well, EQing and sidechain is already done and I think mix is done pretty good too..

 

I just need a little explanation about how the limiter works if you guys have time.

 

This was something I recently struggled with, -18dbfs sounds so quiet. It's just that you have to change what you're used to hearing. This is especially true using hardware or hardware emulation plugins.

I'll clip the converters sometimes, but mostly try to stay out of the red. I'm thinking my analog summing chain likely helps somewhat with the inter sample peaking.

I'd try to locate whichever track/bus contributes the most to the clipping you had and try limiting it or volume automating it at the point it clips. Then you can push the volume some.

It'd probably help if you posted a sample clip. The guys can listen and give some better advice then...

 

To OP.

Is this mixing stage or mastering? I just assume it is mixing.. turn up your monitoring volume (speaker, headphone) if you feel the output way too low.

Like all the others have suggested to you, keep your peak level below -6db and if all possible with average of -18db RMS. Want more challenging? Maintain your mixes LUFS at an average of 23

Tips for you to improve and get more understanding for your next project,
- recalibrate your monitoring system / speaker
- do a quick research about "Gain Staging"
- less is more

 

If you're looking for a squashed/squared sound you can use 2 limiters each one doing less and it will sound better and also louder
or just simply push the threshold down till you hear artefacts then lower back to where it sits good. The final limiter in the chain can be
dialed to -0.30 on output.

 

Ok, wow. After exporting it sounds much louder than in DAW. Here is the preview (if i can post it lol). Tell me if that's too loud / too compressed or whatever.

https://instaud.io/2Htr