[ddots-l] Re: Response to posts

Also, from my experience, the hardest tracks to mix and compress properly are 
the kick and bass. Once you can get those at a "commercial" level without 
distorting, then the rest of the tracks are pretty easy to nail.


Omar Binno

Website: www.omarbinno.com
AIM: LOD1116
Skype: obinno1
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bryan Smart 
  To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 10:37 AM
  Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Response to posts


  0 DB is the loudest level that can be shown on the meter. However, if you use 
a compressor with a peek limiter mode, and turn up the gain, then you're 
squashing the maximum level without applying any sort of compression curve. The 
track will get much louder. The Sonitus compressor has 30 DB of output gain, so 
can crank up your mix as loud as you want it.

  Of course, beyond a certain amount of gain, you'll start to hear distortion 
artifacts. Besides that, the track may start to sound unnatural, as the 
ambiance of the room begins to sound abnormally loud.

  If you are hearing artifacts, and you still need your track to be even louder 
(such as with some dance jenras), then you need to use the peek limiters on 
individual elements, instead of the entire mix. This means that you should 
separate out the drums on to a bus, and peek limit that as much as you can 
before distortion. Do the same thing for synths that are grouped on to another 
bus. Put the vocals on another bus and squish those on their own. In this way, 
you apply the maximum amount of limiting that each component of the mix will 
stand. Then, finally, you peek limit the master bus. Although, after limiting 
all of those individual elements, the master bus won't be able to take much 
limiting at all.

  Go ahead and go wild with this. By all means, squash everything flat. Crank 
it up! Get a good taste for what it sounds like. It will be loud, but it will 
also make everything start to sound muddy. Your kick drum won't even punch with 
accents anymore. It will be very difficult to get bass to stand out in the mix. 
It will sound like you can hear every drop of spit in your vocalist's mouth as 
their tongue moves. There will be massive amounts of body noise from the 
guitars. There is, therefore, a limit to how much of this you would want to use.

  Bryan


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Stacy Blackwell
  Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 5:01 PM
  To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: [ddots-l] Response to posts


  Of course Bryan's essay was awesome.  Did you expect less?  I am saving it to 
read over and over again.  I have also enjoyed reading the last couple of days 
posts because they have offered me some good advice and suggestions.  Thanks to 
all.  And Darren, you are very talented in your music.  I'm more of a classic 
rocking guitarist and country singer, but I was very impressed by your 
arrangements.  It made me appreciate that style of music even more. 
  Back to the vocal peaks, maximum db levels, and compressors that have been 
mixed in and out of posts, are you guys using compressors to, for instance, 
"smush" a -1db mix down to say a -6db, and then using the compressor's gain to 
bring it back up to 0db?  I know Gordon mentioned headroom and such, but I 
cannot get my recordings to be as loud as commercial CD's.  Even though my 
songs may sound okay, the main comment I get is that they aren't loud enough.  
In looking at my Master bus's output level, it will be just under 0db, and my 
associated buses are way below that.  I do have a compressor and EQ inserted 
into the Master bus which provides a smooth boost I think.  Do you guys think 
that if the song is pumping out at 0db at the Master bus that this is the way 
it should be, or am I to adjust something like the buses output volumes?  I 
guess what I am trying to ask is do your recordings match other commercial and 
other studio recordings in overall volume?  If so, how are you achieving this?  
Maybe I'm not using the Sonetus compressor to its greatest potential.  Sorry 
for this confusing posts, but I would like to get the best sound at the maximum 
non-clipping volume.  Any comments?       
   


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