Quote:
Originally Posted by O.G. Killa
The first step in getting a good mix ITB is to track correctly. Your mix should be pretty close to the final with ALL THE FADERS set to 0dB. Your average level should be a little under halfway up the protools meter. Don't think 0dBFS is the same as 0dB VU!! There is roughly an 18~20dB difference in volume between them.
It's not a tutorial, but there is some great info from some amazing sound engineers in this thread talking about some of the issues you are running into...
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/ind.../t/15038/1561/
It's not your job to make it loud, it's your job to make it sound good. Making it loud is a different step altogether....
If you have to pull any fader down by 25dB, then you should check to make sure you didn't record it incorrectly... From a mixing stand point you want to try to keep all your faders around 0dB. Why? Because the faders are logarithmic. Moving the fader down by 1" starting at 0dB will roughly reduce the volume by 5 or 6dB. moving the fader down by an inch starting at -20dB will reduce the volume by about 20dB!!! You have more subtle control over levels the closer you can keep the faders to 0. Mixing with all your faders down around -25dB means every tiny little movement you make on the faders will yield drastic volume changes in those tracks. It is much harder to mix that way.
Track lower and keep your faders at unity as much as possible. |
I find all of this to be totally counter intuitive and mechanical. It puts engineering and mechanics first and artful listening second. The notion of having all of your faders as close to zero is an old school notion that, to me at least, has nothing to do with whether or not the actual musicality of the mix sounds good. Fader movement should happen as the result of listening to the audio that is being controlled by that fader and it's level relative to the other audio in the mix. Also, don't forget that we have the ability to make microscopic level adjustments in Pro Tools these days. The ability to get down to the smallest increment is one of the amazing aspects of ITB mixing.