hey guys, i'm not too experienced/good/knowledged at this kind of thing i have a track in garageband that's mixed the way i want it and everything's set, but i can't adjust the total output volume any higher without it setting off the peak indicators. but it still seems quiet, especially when i play it back in garageband and then compare that volume to an mp3 in itunes or something. what the problem is niggas
lmao you gonna hafta do sum hard limiting. It won't have that "clip" sound but you can boost the levels and crush out some of the dynamics since nobody likes those anyway. It's easy, like a couple buttons. To do it really properly you need to pay someone good at mastering and they can do it probably really awesomely. You do it after the final mixdown for the simplest approach.
man that's some REAL BULLSHIT. so you're saying i should just mixdown the way it is and then do the hard limiting business to the single final audio file?
The only way to learn anything is by paying some large institution to grade you on how good you are at learning things on your own.
i knew you were going to say that before i clicked on the thread. anyone helpful? do studios give mastering lessons?
Mastering is considered the most technically demanding of audio jobs in the recording business. People who do audio masters, are people who have been in the business for years and have an amazing ear, know how to listen, and what to tweak. Whether or not they have classes? Probably not. Maybe an internship, but good luck with that.
dude fuck the L3. Get yourself a PSP Xenon. Beats the living shit outta L3. ....my humble opinion of course.
PSP stuff is top quality shit, will have to check out. I don't mind the L3 too much personally, but I appreciate that it colours the sound in a way that isn't always good. I was mainly just using it as an example. You can get away with more if you use it alongside some other different limiters, each doing a small amount of the work rather than crushing the mix with one plugin.
yeah that's true. same goes with most of the waves plugins for me. Like the standard C1 compression... not good on it's own, but then coupled with PSP's Vintage Warmer? BANG. Studio Magic
Given the option between a good piece of outboard hardware and its plugin equivalent you'd pretty much be an idiot not to choose the hardware. Especially in ProTools HD, where you can set up your hardware on an insert plugin to move it around the signal chain. Plugins are great for multiple instances, but hardware just sounds better.
Lets not turn this thread into an OTB vs ITB discussion like we have in every engineering forum. GearSlutz to name 1. And go listen to my GF play piano!!!!!
No argument here. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, and a best-of-both-worlds approach is the best option.
Add more compression to all the individual tracks, then to the buses, then to the master. Either Massey L2 or DSM are my favorite make-it-louders for the master.
I wouldn't compress the individual tracks or buses unless they need it, or you could run the risk of killing off the dynamics unnecessarily and ending up with a very flat sounding mix. If you're happy with how it all sounds apart from the overall volume, stick to compressing/limiting the master.
But he's got the individual tracks; would be bad to do something to the whole mix if only the vocals needed it... I'm going to guess that if it's in Garageband, the tracks probably aren't as "mixed" as what we're used to... I'm guessing just some rough levels/panning, although I've never heard it, so I could be wrong. But I like to compress tracks as much as possible before the bus... if you squash the bass guitar , you got the sweet sound of Paul's bass on Paperback Writer... if you squash the whole mix, you end up with the lifeless music of modern radio. But yeah, if you're really happy with the mix as it is, then just toss a limiter on. Try a couple different ones, see what you like more.
Huh, then he would be mixing, and not mastering. Mastering is the final process done to the entire mix.
lots of mastering studios these days will ask you for a few different mixes, and sometimes they ask for a few separate files so it becomes a bit "pseudo-mixing". I forget what it is called, but they will say have a mix of just vocals, just drums, then the rest. From what i've read this seems to work quiet well. Dammit i wish i could remember the site where i was reading all of that, it was really informative.
They don't have to... except in PT HD. But in most DAW engines, the long floating points will continue through all plugins, and the mix. Of course, some plugins (boo! hiss!) do in fact truncate back to 24bit fixed, needlessly... Especially RTAS and TDM plugin makers, where they wouldn't want the RTAS to sound nicer than the TDM versions But this is a bit off topic... Stems is what you're thinking of..
I may be wrong, but surely that's not really a problem if you're recording in 24-bit to begin with (in reference to the RTAS plugins).
ahh yes, just did a search. I think the article i read just called them separations but it's the same thing.
It's not a huge problem, but it is a problem. The plugin will operate at higher than 24 bit internally, even if that's what it's fed... a multiplication operation will take it far past 24 bits... anywhere from 64bit fixed to 48 bit floating point usually... It would be better to pass that long 48-64 bit word along to the next plugin, instead of chopping half of the bits off each time it goes from plugin to plugin. Most DAWs do pass the longer number along; all of them except for PT HD. But that's no guarantee that the plugin will; some will just dither it to 24 bit anyways. Not a huge deal, it's a subtle difference, but still....
Huh, interesting. Like you said before, I guess it's one more way of making people fork out for the TDM versions.
I've read this one so many times... it's like my bible. Bob explains this whole bit-dropping problem very well.
And so many plugin developers are dropping TDM. So if we HD guys want the flavor of the month plugin, we have to put a fucking trim plug in the first insert slot of all the tracks running rtas while we're tracking. Fucking A! Go hardware!
reviews on amazon said that it built off of an assumed knowledge of the reader; anyone know where it starts, and where i could go firt?
I have a wonderful idea. Send us the track with peaks way under digital zero like -6/-12 and lets see who can make it the loudest without it sounding like shit!
Hell yeah, let's have a limit-off! It will be interesting to see magus888's hardware against my DSM... sometimes I can make DSM do magical things, sometimes I everything I try makes it sound worse...
I'm serious. Lets turn this whole loudness fiasco into more of a gimmick than it already is. And for those of us who are actually told to make a mix as loud as possible, it will be fun practice.
Here's a pretty loud mix I just did for a mix contest. This isn't any commercial work, so I don't feel bad posting it. http://www.yousendit.com/download/UFVxL0dLbEoyWGRjR0E9PQ
hmmm..... i have no idea. Just you pick one. and post a dl link here Then anyone who wants can do it!
I don't have anything that I could legally post on a forum. I have my girlfriend's solo piano sessions, but brickwalling that would be unmusical any way you'd do it.
