How can I get my mixes a little bit louder?

[kylendm]

So I've watched a ton of stuff on mastering and such but I just can't seem to get my mixes as loud as most others. I get pretty close but much more and I'm crackling and such.

Maybe you guys could clear something up for me. Just by looking at this file you can see the peaks and dips pretty clearly. I notice others mixes and they are MUCH more even and tamed. I can't clip anything any further without it sounding like absolute crap.

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/kylendm/silence4/s-wdOF6[/SOUNDCLOUD]

Now do you guys clip before or during the mastering stage? How could I push my mix to a little bit higher volumes without the massive clipping? When I export the wave for mastering in another project I'm sending it out around -10db if not a little less like around -12. I know this is a decent range.

My mastering stage is some h/p filtering, just a little tape saturation, slight eqing, compression, clipping, and then limiting.

 

[Clark Kent]

Sounds like you'll need a better mastering limiter/compressor. What are you using at the moment? Ozone Loudness Maximizer is hard to beat.

 

[kylendm]

Yeah I have Ozone 4 right now and I'm worried pushing it further will start making it clip.

 

[blue_fAng]

Try to make the mix peak between -6 and -3 dbfs, use only the maximizer in ozone and dont pull the threshold slider all the way down, instead, pull it half the way down maybe a little more, arround -13. See how it goes, check your mixdown with an RMS meter and make sure goes arrround -9.

 

[blue_fAng]

BTW I dont know if mixdown is the correct word. What i meant was your mastered export.

 

[Christian WUFU]

You may have some large peaks in certain frequency ranges that the limiter and comp are reacting to, thusly, not letting you get as loud as you would like to without all the digital nasties.
I know you've probably read/heard it a million times: that you should only EQ very gently when mastering. However, if there are large spikes and peaks that you just can't seem to tame in the mix don't be afraid to knock them out in the mastering stage. Again, probably something you've seen a million times, but it's a point worth reiterating: if it sounds good, it is good.

I'd also like to say that I'm not knocking anyone else's practices/theories/rules, and that I'm definitely by no means an expert (obviously) hahaha. I just thought I'd throw this out there in case it helps the OP or anyone really.

 

[P-E]

^ Exactly. Best example of that is Day of Mourning by Despised Icon. Sounds very good, but it's definitely on the thin and dry sides.

 

[miguelrx10d]

With Ozone I usually need two stages of compression/limiting... the first one just taming the highest peaks and keep everything under control and then Ozone limiter aiming for somewhere around -9 RMS.

 

[schwinginbatman]

It may just be EQ. It's only been recently as my mixes have improved, that my masters have gotten louder. You may notice that when you master a mix that has more in the mids than the lows, you can get that shit ridiculously loud easily. There was one mix where I got it up to -5 RMS before things got dicey, and it didn't have a ton going on in the low-mids and lows outside of what needed to be there. Obviously, I don't get mixes that loud, I aim for an average of -7 to -8, a bit inbetween ridiculously loud and too quiet for my personal tastes.

You may also want to try to do a bit more compression, but I'm not sure how much you do anyway.

 

[kylendm]

Nice, thanks guys, I dropped some low end out and it peaks at around 9 now!

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/kylendm/silence5-1/s-tBIfi[/SOUNDCLOUD]

As far as compression goes I have the SSL hitting 4dbs.
0 Thresh
10ms attack
Auto release
2:1 ratio

 

[RedDog]

cut your subs and push your drums into the mid-bass frequencies. watch your peaks and focus energy into your mid/high mids. Fletcher-munson that shit and you're loud as fuck.

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

My personal favourite is the master volume.

 

[MIAnn]

Nice, thanks guys, I dropped some low end out and it peaks at around 9 now!

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/kylendm/silence5-1/s-tBIfi[/SOUNDCLOUD]

As far as compression goes I have the SSL hitting 4dbs.
0 Thresh
10ms attack
Auto release
2:1 ratio

10ms attack? personally i use 30ms

 

[JonWormwood]

10ms attack? personally i use 30ms

+189761389

 

[kylendm]

Where are some of you guys aiming at when it comes to compression? How much gain reduction do you shoot for?

 

[Clark Kent]

Several compressors with 1dB of gain reduction. Very transparent. Usually API-2500, SSL Comp and the one on FG-X. I can get my mixes as loud as -5dB RMS at times but ofcourse that's too much. I aim somewhere around -7,5dB RMS peak.

 

[bryan_kilco]

GClip on drum bus to tame snare peaks a bit.

And as mentioned - less low end.

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

Several compressors with 1dB of gain reduction. Very transparent. Usually API-2500, SSL Comp and the one on FG-X. I can get my mixes as loud as -5dB RMS at times but ofcourse that's too much. I aim somewhere around -7,5dB RMS peak.

Could you explain this logic to me? If you can "get you mixes to -5db rms", I'd understand, that you can do this without audible sacrifices to audio..? So why is it too much?

Because I too can get my mixes at -2db rms with ease, with few turns of a knob.. but of course not without fuckin' up everything sound wise..

 

[schwinginbatman]

Could you explain this logic to me? If you can "get you mixes to -5db rms", I'd understand, that you can do this without audible sacrifices to audio..? So why is it too much?

Because I too can get my mixes at -2db rms with ease, with few turns of a knob.. but of course not without fuckin' up everything sound wise..

Because it never needs to be that loud.

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

Because it never needs to be that loud.

It never NEEDS to be loud at all.