Question about Master Fader levels- help

[owusumenes1]

Hopefully I can explain this so that it makes sense. Forgive me, I am fairly new to home recording. After I record a song, when opening a master fader track I find that if I set its level so that it is as hot as possible without it going into the red, after I bounce to disk the result is a track with a volume not as high as I would like, at all, its quite low actually. So what I've done is set the master fader level so high that the levels go into the red(usually considerably higher than 0db) and I get more volume, and I don't hear any clipping or distortionn or anything bad. But I guess I'm wondering if this is still a bad idea and if I should just stick the low levels, and count on mixing and mastering elsewhere to raise the levels? And is it unusual that the levels tend to be kinda low even though the master fader is showing hot levels? Is there something else I may be doing wrong? Also, if I'm in the red, why am I not hearing clipping or anything wrong, should I not worry and just do what I'm doing, cause the stuff is sounding quite good any way? I've played it for people and they applaud the sound quality. But I do have a friend who told me to always keep the master fader at 0db, or else you get distortion, is that true? is that something that's noticeable to the ears, and necessary to prevent? As you can see I am a novice.

[Seeee]

you need a limiter on that master fader then you can bring up the average level without it digitally clipping. try maxim from digidesign or the L1/2 from waves.

[owusumenes1]

but what exactly constitutes "digital clipping", cause no matter how high my master fader is I don't hear anything wrong, although if I turn it all the way up i do here like the "booming" effect of levels being way too loud. I apologize for not knowing correct terminology.

[Windshore]

Check your sends levels. Unfortunately you have to open each to check, but if you're sending too much level to the bus, ... you can get phantom distortion....

[audioidiot]

funny you don't hear digital distortion.
digital distortion will occur everytime you pass 0dB, and unlike analog distortion, which is very nice sounding, digital distortion is always nasty sounding clicks...also known as 'clipping'.

You always want to keep the level of any of your audio tracks (including master fader) below 0dB.
(but still let it get close to 0dB, so you keep a nice headroom).

In order to maximize the level on your master fader you want to use a brickwall limiter.
on the limiter you determine out ceiling of 0dB (or just as precausion do -0.1dB).
once your out ceiling is set - no signal will exceed it. Now you can start pumping level.

personally i use the Waves L2 or L3 on my master fader. expect ultra clean high levels...

[pk_hat]

Everyone has their method, but this is what works for me.

1- Master Fader is always at Unity Gain, meaning 0db.
2- Make sure your mix sounds good without touching the MF.
3- If you're clipping, whether you hear it or not, go back to the mix and adjust the individual culprits accordingly.
4- Record at 24bit/44.1
5- Don't worry so much about getting the hottest level in at tracking. Just get it sounding godd.
6- Focus on the mix before even worrying about how loud it may or may not turn out to be.
7- When you bounce, do it at 24bit with nothing at all on the MF.
8- Import that 2 track stereo mix into a new session
9- While it's always best to have your stuff mastered by a pro, for the ghetto jobs, this is the stage where you bring up the levels. A touch of compression, minor eq adjustments and finally, limiting. The latter is what will boost the perceivable level of your mix. More often than not, this is the stage where most people screw up, hobbyists and pros alike (listen to most any commercial pop/rock cd of the last 4-5 years and, well...there you have it, they sound like crap with waveforms that look like a thick brick from beginning to end).

10- Dither is your friend. If you've raised an eyebrow at "dither", do a search on this or any other recording board to learn why you should use it.

11- Don't get discouraged if you don't get the results you'd wished on your first few attempts, this stuff takes time to learn, practice, perseverance and most of all, desire and motivation to keep doing a better job. This applies to tracking and mixing as well. It's a contant learning process, regardless of how long you've been doing this.