Clipping advice? - Audible Clipping + Meter Clipping

[-Loco-]

I'm pretty happy with my mixes recently but I know I can do better with my general housekeeping of projects and the headroom I give my tracks. My main concern is that after mixing (but before mastering) my mixes still tend to clip on the master meter but the clipping isn't audible. Should this be a cause for concern?

I know as a general rule mixes should be peaking at -3dB before mastering.

The snare transients are the one thing that keep setting me back, even with GClip running on every snare track.

I'm currently mixing my bands E.P so any advice would prove extremely useful to me

 

[bryan_kilco]

I'd say lower all your faders so your Master isn't clipping at all. It's not meant to clip. My issue is with the snare as well....I run GClip on both snare tracks, on the snare bus, and on my Master....I notice that when dropping my limiters threshold, my snare gets buried eventually....also, the right amount of compression should help as well.

 

[-Loco-]

Cool man, i'm getting closer and closer. I'm running some parallel comp and I recently bought SPL transient designer which is a dream to work with on a snare when trying to balance it with all the compression! only using it sparingly though. Using low-ish ratios for the compressors between 1.3 and 1.8.

Will try to post some clips soon.

 

[Fivestringcult]

I've gotten into the habit of tracking with the levels at around -18dB on average, so that when I come to mix I never run into this problem. There was an article linked from here some time back explaining the theory behind it, but in simple terms it's to do with how A/D/A converters work their best at this level, as it's the equivalent to 0dB on an analog VU meter. Outboard gear performs better at this level too.

If you've already tracked hotter, try running some Trim plugins (or equivalent) first in your Insert chains to get the levels down.

 

[-Loco-]

Really? that's ridiculously low. Surely when you're compensating for such low levels you're also adding a load more noise into your chain? It's made a difference so far in that i've got a punchy drum mix with no clipping when I apply my general master setup - my only query is that I wonder if the apparent volume will be lower than my other mixes there were clipping slightly..by a substantial amount

 

[professorlamp]

I track at -18 aswell, Im pretty sure that the noisefloor in most digital systems like interfaces for example is extremely low or non-existent, the practice of tracking hot goes back to the analogue days when you had to track hot to avoid the noise floor, these days its all gravy though and we're A ok

 

[-Loco-]

This is interesting! this means I can now track late into the night. I take it you just fire up the fader when you need to since you're provided with all of that headroom? Does the same go for bass?

 

[bryan_kilco]

I've been tracking around -18dB as well. Leaves tons of headroom. Just turn up your monitors if it's too quiet, or throw a quick Master chain on......

 

[Fivestringcult]

Yeah, -18 really isn't low enough for noise to become an issue. The noise floor for most decent gear these days is so low, the ambient noise of the room will become apparent before that of the gear you're using when you crank the levels (if you're recording with microphones of course). The extra headroom it provides, and having better results from the outboard gear is more than worth it IMO.

 

[-Loco-]

Could you guys post some clips of your work? Just for example/reference.

 

[Fivestringcult]

I'm at work right now (at my non-recording related job unfortunately), so I don't have anything to hand, but if I get chance later on then I'll see if I can find something to upload. I've only started working this way quite recently myself actually.

 

[professorlamp]

If i remember to I'll upload some stuff later.

 

[Melodeath]

Just add a new master buss, route your previous master to it, and turn down the fader so it's not clipping. Or just turn down the faders of all your tracks. It does to same thing, although you'll have to re-adjust all your plug-ins on the master buss.

 

[-Noodles-]

Really? that's ridiculously low.

Are you sure you don't mean that -6dBRMSFS or 0dBFS is too high?
Mixes are supposed to be on the "quiet" side of things - that's what mastering is there for.

 

[professorlamp]

There you go, this is one of my latest mixes just as you asked, I didn't spend loads of time on it, the guitar is a bit flubby and overall a tad sketchy but you get the idea. Anyway I can guarantee the bass and guitar were tracked peaking at no higher than -15dbfs


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2872916/Week 6 remastered.mp3

 

[tempe]

Another tip even if your tracking at -18 is to make sure that the level going into your plugins matches the level going out. This is also really handy for being able to tell if your actually improving something or just making it louder.

 

[szymon]

tracking at -18dBFS makes sense, if you have good a/d converters (means: low noise).
Somebody suggested lowering all faders - i'd say - supposing you mix at 32bits - lower your master fader. In >32bit it works the same as lowering all faders; in 32 or 64 bit you also have infinite dynamics, so you can't clip the audio signal. Converting down to 24 or 16bit will cause clipping if signal in 32bit exceeds 0dbFS.
Just to keep in mind

 

[AudioGeekZine]

All hardware components including the preamps and converters in your interface are designed to work optimally (lowest noise and distortion) at line level. A few dB above or below is fine.

Line level is 0VU = +4dBu = -18dBFS

So tracking at -18dBFS is not too low, its the right level.