Creating the best mix levels / playback levels

[universe777]

Hi guys got a few questions about mixing levels and playback levels. I just recently started to record, and i was told that you have to keep the levels up close to the red but not IN the red. I have somewhat of a problem with that. When recording mic'd to a guitar cab, im pretty loud however the levels are going maybe 35%. When i yell into the mic for vocals, im gettin around 20% maybe. How can i increase this to get the loudest possible level without problems? Do I take care of all this in the master fader or? The reason why i ask is because i bounced to track a set of guitar riffs just to see how they were sounding, and i could barely hear anything at all. How should i go about increasing the levels?

[M.Brane]

Tracking near 0dbFS is very bad. You need to leave yourself some headroom for processing, and mixing. I track around -12dbFS myself.

Overall loudness is better left for the mastering stage. If you just want to bump the overall louness up for a quick mix test run a limiter on the mix bus. I wouldn't recommend mixing with a limiter on the mix bus though unless you're purposely trying to see how your mix decisions are affected by overall limiting.

[universe777]

Ok i will try that. As far as the mastering stage, what would you recommend doing exactly?

[M.Brane]

As far as the mastering stage, what would you recommend doing exactly?

If it's an important project send your mixes to a good mastering engineer. Seriously.

You can attempt to do it yourself, but you'll likely spend a lot more time/money for less than satisfying results.