trim automation

[booboocakesjones]

Originally, the master volume was peaking a lot on my mix, so a friend decided to put in a trim on all tracks and put it at -10.db.

Of course, over time I subtracted a little here, a little there, etc. Now quite a few of the tracks are at -5.db, etc.

Should I just get rid of all the trim, and just bring the master volume down? Is there any loss of sound quality, if you have to have the master lower while bouncing? I am confused about if there's any difference between trim and volume, or if they are exactly the same thing.
Thanks-

[RadioMoo]

Let me see if I understand: your friend used the trim plugin to pull down the volumes on all the tracks to -10?
You've tweaked the tracks, and now some of them are at -5--in other words, five db higher than when you started?
You're worried about loss of quality by running the master at a lower level?

If all of the above=true, then you could pull down the tracks that have crept up in volume, or you could leave them alone and run the master lower to compensate--while not the ideal way to do it, it works just fine. Use the dither plugin when you bounce to disc.

The trim plugin is like the trim pot on a hardware console: it allows you to raise or lower the level on a channel so that you can run all of your faders and the master at or near unity gain, which is the ideal way to do it.

[egraham]

Is there any loss of sound quality, if you have to have the master lower while bouncing? I am confused about if there's any difference between trim and volume, or if they are exactly the same thing.

I still consider myself a beginner with all this stuff, but I might be able to help point you in the right direction.

If you want a technical explanation for your question read Digidesign's tech article "Mixing in the Box". Go to their monthly Digizine section and click on one of the articles. Next you will see a list of articles on the left side of the page. You will see a Tech Talk article. This provides a technical explanation of the processing that goes on within PT.

It's interesting - a couple of months ago there was an Electronic Musician article where they did an interview with Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails). Some of the technical statements he made seemed to contradict some of the things that Digi says in their Tech Talk article. While his technical explanation for the way he does things may not be entirely correct, I'm sure his ears are telling him the truth. I just found it interesting that a big time engineer doesn't already know this stuff. I guess the moral of the story is - if it sounds good it doesn't matter how you got there.