Hey guys, I've been having trouble with the loudness of my drums. How loud should they be before I start tracking bass and guitar? If I solo my drum buss, where on the meter should it be hitting (about)? What about after mastering?
Drums during mixing stage, before bass and guitars.
- Thread starter Pre Studio Productions
- Start date
Goodfellas453
Always The Understudy Vox
well when i track guitars the drums are just at unity with cymbals pulled down just a lil bit, then i track guitars and bass, its really to taste when tracking, if you have good monitors all you have to do is turn em up(drums dont need to be booming yet) as soon as your tracks are all recorded and edited, take the bass guitar solo it and slam it with a limiter to -18 rms then put the kick just over it(use your ears) then one guitar track then the OHs then the toms then other guitar track then vocals, this works for me,...
thats the mixing part of it all, mastering is seperate. once you finish this stuff and are happy with the mix, you can apply mastering plugs, theres a bunch of people using ozone, waves plugs like L3,L2. basically you use a limiter to bump up the volume, make sure your not clipping the master though, again use your ears not just meters
thats the mixing part of it all, mastering is seperate. once you finish this stuff and are happy with the mix, you can apply mastering plugs, theres a bunch of people using ozone, waves plugs like L3,L2. basically you use a limiter to bump up the volume, make sure your not clipping the master though, again use your ears not just meters
Joey.coldweather
Joey R
I track everything at -18dBfs and then come mixing doesn't really matter where you put anything as long as you're not clipping. Its purely to taste; where you think it sounds good is the right place for it to be.
sorry, but can you explain how to track at -18dbfs? like the meters have to be peaking at -18dbs? and then once u mix, u start leveling everything?
Joey.coldweather
Joey R
You want it so it averages around -18 dbfs, not peaking. A good "average" -18dbfs would be peaking around -12 to -9 or so. But hey, whatever sounds best
Joey.coldweather
Joey R
olif8
Minge
Try reading it again
gotet10
Learner
doesnt really matter when mixing, but average commercial track volume is about -8 rms (for loud mixes)
gotet10
Learner
Thats after mastering though. Your mix should never be ANYWHERE near that loud. You'll never be able to master it correctly.
Trevoire520
Member
This is something I see constantly.
There's no magic number for what level your guitar/bass/drums/mix should be sitting at.
Record your tracks at an average of about -18dBfs so you dont have to pull down all your faders at the very start of the mix. Listen to your tracks and turn them up or down until they're balanced without being excessively loud (clipping) or quiet at the master bus.
There's no magic number for what level your guitar/bass/drums/mix should be sitting at.
Record your tracks at an average of about -18dBfs so you dont have to pull down all your faders at the very start of the mix. Listen to your tracks and turn them up or down until they're balanced without being excessively loud (clipping) or quiet at the master bus.
timislegend
Member
- Jun 8, 2010
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Ahhh failure, misread it. Anywho, I think it was useful to add the "max peaks" into the equation, easier for a novice to understand.
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