School me on unity gain...

[Fladlien]

Here's one for you.

I made a rough mix of a track a month back, and just to get something in the ballpark I tossed a compressor on the master to boost the overall mix a touch (I never put anything on a master fader when mixing usually). So I came a month later and started to actually mix this track. I worked on it all day today, thinking that my master fader was set at Unity gain (zero). Then after finishing I noticed that I had that stupid plug in on the master fader. Now I took it off and my track peaks out at -1.4 I'd like to get it back up to zero. So what should stop me from just turning the master fader knob up to +1.3?

I've always heard that you shouldn't do this, but I've never gotten an explanation why. I've moved the fader knob myself before on my rough mixes and I've never noticed any difference. Any knowledge on unity gain and as to why I should or shouldln't touch the fader knob would be appreciated.

[Mt.Everest]

Here's one for you.

I made a rough mix of a track a month back, and just to get something in the ballpark I tossed a compressor on the master to boost the overall mix a touch (I never put anything on a master fader when mixing usually). So I came a month later and started to actually mix this track. I worked on it all day today, thinking that my master fader was set at Unity gain (zero). Then after finishing I noticed that I had that stupid plug in on the master fader. Now I took it off and my track peaks out at -1.4 I'd like to get it back up to zero. So what should stop me from just turning the master fader knob up to +1.3?

I've always heard that you shouldn't do this, but I've never gotten an explanation why. I've moved the fader knob myself before on my rough mixes and I've never noticed any difference. Any knowledge on unity gain and as to why I should or shouldln't touch the fader knob would be appreciated.

The master fader in PT is merely a level control for all other faders. Raise or lower it, and its as if you were raising or lowering your channel faders. That being said, if your music is peaking at -1.4dBfs, you are fine. I usually stay around there to avoid intersample clips (that the Digi meters dont show. this may not be as much of an issue in LE but it sure is in TDM) and also to avoid the chance of a full clip. Also, If you are hitting zero on your mixes, chances are, they will clip the output of consumer cd players and the like. Keep your overal program level hot on your master fader, but anything from -6 to -1.5 is perfectly fine. In your specific case, I wouldnt worry about it. Really, there is absolutely no reason to feel the need to be as close to 0dBfs as possible. All that junk about 'using all the bits' or 'getting full 24bit resolution' are all myths.

But fyi, make sure you are putting some sort of dither on the master fader if you are bouncing 24bit mixes to 16 bit files.

MT

[Fladlien]

Thanks for you reply.

As far as dithering goes, I initially was told to put a dither plug in on the master fader and bypass it and record to 24 bits, and then to activate the dither and then choose bounce. But in a previous mix, I have forgotten to put any dither plug in before recording my mix. The mix was still in 24 bits. I think put the dither on the stereo channel it was mixed to and bounced it down. This achieves the same thing right? Or should I do the way I was initially shown? Thanks again.

[mindnoise]

hi,

school yourself:

http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/directory.htm

regs