The faders in my mix are frequently above 0. Is that a problem.

[RiF]

Originally Posted by GeneRoberts

I am about to export my piece and, suddenly, I start worrying about those fader levels going above zero. Should I not bring them down and try to raise the overall volume through Maxim, even though everything sounds just fine as it is?

A good habit would be that you keep your individual track levels within the green and lower yellow areas (see the track meters). It does not matter where your fader is at, it matters where your levels are. So the meters and not the faders count here.

On your master fader, the level should be some dB below the ceiling (that is before limiting, with Maxim bypassed). Ideally -18 dB (but mine is always higher than that), because this is the digital equivalent of 0 dB VU in the analog world.

If that final mixdown should be as loud as "commercial productions", you'll need at least a brickwall limiter of some sorts (like Maxim) to bring up the level. Maxim works, but it will introduce some audible artifacts like distortion or smeared transients with higher amounts of gain reduction. All limiters do that, but there are some that have less audible artifacts (I like iZotope Ozone's Maximizer).
To minimize those artifacts, have an eye on the attenuation display which should be within 2-3 dB maximum. Play with the Release to see if it helps.
Again, the setting of the threshold-slider does not matter at all, the amount of attenuation does! If the attenuation is 0, then nothing bad happens other than bringing up the level.

A tip is to use two Maxim's after each other in serial. Sounds weird, but in my experience two Maxim's working 2 dB of gain reduction each sounded better than one doing 4 dB.

Another tip is to set the ceiling to -0.3 dB to leave just a little headroom on the final master. Especially MP3-conversion is said to benefit from that to prevent any unwanted distortion coming from the conversion process (don't ask me about details, I just made it a habit...).

[GeneRoberts]

Originally Posted by RiF

If that final mixdown should be as loud as "commercial productions", you'll need at least a brickwall limiter of some sorts (like Maxim) to bring up the level. Maxim works, but it will introduce some audible artifacts like distortion or smeared transients with higher amounts of gain reduction. All limiters do that, but there are some that have less audible artifacts (I like iZotope Ozone's Maximizer).

Thanks for that. Are you implying that, if Maxim is used lightly (leaving enough dynamics in the peace but just bringing the volume up to acceptable levels), then Maxim is as good as any other limiter plug-in?

I come from a classical background and strongly dislike heavily compressed music. So I use the limiter lightly. As song as it's not too quiet, I'm fine.

[GeneRoberts]

Originally Posted by Sardi

That's like saying all a car does is take you from point A to point B. Is the drive in a Hyundai going to be somewhat inferior to a Ferrari?

=P

Car analogies are notoriously meaningless in audio. It's always brought up here and I haven't seen one which accurately presents the issue.

If you take away the need for speed, prestige, human biases, brand, and all, and if getting from A to B was all that you needed, then yes, pretty much any car (which can drive) would accomplish the same thing.

I admit that other limiters may have more features, better ways to see and monitor the effects and what not. But it's entirely possible that they all do the basic task the same way. If it turns out they don't, then something other than a car analogy needs to be brought up, I think.

[Sardi]

Actually, my car analogy in this case is bang on.

Leather seats, speed, gear ratio, ergonomics... the list goes on.

The exact same thing can be said about limiters. Some can handle huge amounts of gain reduction whilst still sounding transparent. Some are ergonomically better to use. Some have far more controls to customise the tone and response.

IMHO, Maxim is one of the worst limiters I've ever heard. Working in mastering, I've used a lot of different types and that plugin is hideous.


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[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by GeneRoberts

I come from a classical background and strongly dislike heavily compressed music. So I use the limiter lightly. As song as it's not too quiet, I'm fine.

A limiter is a compressor. It will compress everything that is higher than the threshold to the point of squashing it completely. Basically you can achieve a limiting effect with any compressor set to ratio 11:1 and over. If you simply want to raise the volume without using a compressor or limiter, then route all your buses (sub mix) and the audio tracks that are not sub-mixed to a Aux track, and route that aux track to your master fader. Then raise the aux track fader until you see the desired volume on the master fader. Be careful of peaks though.