I cant get my overall level high enough :(

[MaKoRancid]

i just have a question about mastering. I have a mix ready that im doing. I set up a master fader in the session. The master fader clipped so i brought down all of the tracks so that the master fader wouldn't clip. this left my song at a very low level. when i set up a session for mastering i cant get my song anywhere near standard cd level with an l2 and c4.

[nightshadecrisis]

check out this post, it has a few pointers that helped me out using limiters:
http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...=5&o=7&fpart=1

hope this helps,
ev

[where02190]

There's alot more to mastering than slapping a limiter on the master fader in PTle. If there wasn't, mastering engineers would be out of business.

[3JDamon]

Well in all fairness, it's a good idea to know what goes on in mastering, and learning how to get the most out of C4 and L1 doesn't hurt, especially for low budget projects.

Myself, if a master fader has a peak limiter on it, I don't worry if the input is going over. The limiter's going to shave those peaks anyway. Just as long as nothing sustained is lighting up the reds.

[nightshadecrisis]

it seemed to me that the problem here would be getting the overall volume higher, not going full blown into mastering, just getting the level up to high volume without peaking. with a little practice(im still working on it....)this can be done well with limiters. good luck!

-ev

[Kryckmeister]

I often use a compressor early in my mastering chain, eq, stereo expander and last the L2.
I use a multiband compressor on mixes that need more adjusment than what a regular eq won't do as good.

[MaKoRancid]

Well in all fairness, it's a good idea to know what goes on in mastering, and learning how to get the most out of C4 and L1 doesn't hurt, especially for low budget projects.

Myself, if a master fader has a peak limiter on it, I don't worry if the input is going over. The limiter's going to shave those peaks anyway. Just as long as nothing sustained is lighting up the reds.

So if in your session the red light on the master fader comes up, you keep it that way and let it bounce anyways?

[marknolan]

if i have problems with the level of my mix not beeing loud enough i first check out my low frequency signals (bass-guitar, bass-drum, low toms, mean guitars..., etc.) They "consume" a lot of the mixes "energy"! At this point I am not limiting, compressing or eq-ing my mix at all... (of course on single tracks i have eq's, compressors, etc.) If you find your overall level decreasing dramatically when turning down lower frequencies you might want to set a high pass filter (set to about 45-70Hz - depends on what the mix is for...) on the the tracks with lots of low end!

After i've "cleaned" my bass frequencies i would bounce my mix to disk. After bouncing i open a new session and start "mastering". I work with a multiband compressor and a limiter. If I need a lot of compression to get my levels as high as possible I like to use more compressors at minimal settings as opposed to one compressor set to full compression.

Well hope this helps!

Mark

[s0nguy]

People are too concerned with red lights. If it lights up the red a few times and I can't HEAR IT then it's fine. I use Paris alongside PT and it actually sounds GOOD when it clips because it distorts like tape. I will even get a mix in PT and run it through Paris to squeeze a few DBs out of it.

To the original poster, go through your song and take the loudest points down a little bit, you can bring your overall level up this way. There are many plugins out there that can help you get your levels hot but my basic rule is get it hot in the mix, then get it hotter in the "mastering".

Bottom line: Eyes are great......use your ears more.

-S0nguy

[where02190]

digital distortion sounds absolutely nothing like tape saturation. Digital distortion, or overshooting 0dbfs, is completely unrecognizable noise.

Whether you hear the over or not, the end users converters will. do not overshoot 0dbfs, even for a millisecond. It will cause many players to not play the track, as the overshoot will be read as an error.

Manually reducing the peak levels of quick transients by a db or two cn give you much needed headroom. select a zerocrossing region centered on the peak at max zoom, and use the gain plugin to reduce the gain of the region by a couple db. The change will be totally inaudible (typically these peaks are microseconds in length) and you can gain several db of headroom.

Also, consider looking into more serious 2 track editing/mastering software if you're going to continue inhouse mastering.