How do I pump up the volume/level of my session without clipping master fader ?

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by Darney

Have you tried the test with a square wave? That's always been my go-to waveform in audio - if a system can pass a square wave without rounding or peaking the leading or trailing edge, you know it's clean.

In analog circuits, yes. It would be difficult, though, to tell the difference between a clipped and unclipped perfect square wave in the digital realm. It's the ultimate clipped-shaped waveform to start with!

[Darney]

Originally Posted by daeron80

In analog circuits, yes. It would be difficult, though, to tell the difference between a clipped and unclipped perfect square wave in the digital realm. It's the ultimate clipped-shaped waveform to start with!

Duh. Didn't think about that... hence the triangle wave..

[necjamc]

Also check your master meter and weed out any transient peaks, ie snare drum Kick drum. If you have a especially loud kick, you may like the sound but the overall dynamic of the song will appear lower. You can mute your louder signals and try too pull up the other material then bring in the louder ones to see if you can bring the overall dynamic up. This may not be the way it is done, but I find on my mixes i used to sway toward eqing my drums in a way that I had to crank them way to loud to be heard causing my mixes to be dynamically lower.
My .14 cents any way.

[daeron80]

That's what brickwall limiters are for. They will automatically turn down just the loudest peaks, leaving everything else untouched. The perception of loudness will be unchanged. The affected drum hits may sound a little less punchy if you squash them too much, though. Generally, it's best to keep maximum reduction to around -3, maybe -6 if you must. More than that and everything starts sounding like late '90s early 2000s. IOW, like crap.

[raiderrob]

Alot of good information here. Just to throw in my 2 cents worth. I use post fader metering in LE, mix my tracks without overall volume being my goal (i.e. dynamics are important) and make sure no track is clipping along with my master fader. I use Waves L1 Ultramaximizer on the master fader to boost my overall level and to dither the track. I do this before I send my stuff to be mastered. I have had pretty good success with making nice punchy tracks that don't sound squashed.

[GMP]

Originally Posted by Toe

Like robo6675 said, you don't need to get your session voulume higher, just get your mix nice leaving some headroom, bounce, then get it mastered if you want to compete with the sonic characteristics of commercial pop music.
But there are loads of good software options to do some mastering yourself.
You should focus on getting the best mix in your session, overall loudness not being a factor.

+1

I like editing and mixing at a level where my eardrums don't burst anyway. It's helps me go longer sessions.no need to blast it while recording and editing. I just take whatever the MBox2 gives me and add that ummph with TRacks24 on the back end.