How to prevent clipping ?

[Tom-D]

This is my first post here, so : Hi !!
OK, so here's the deal:
I have a big problem with clipping.I record guitars, bass and guitar synthesizers with a Tone Port UX 2 with Reaper.So after the recording is done I do all the tweaking(BTW Im not a Pro ).So I bring up the guitars, bass and everything and it sounds good altogheter.I compress individual tracks and bring up the volume.So now I have a wall of sound, which is very cool.But now I want to record some solos, synths and all that on top of that.And this is when the clipping occurs.I dont know how to put those tracks on top on those loud guitars and bass.Offcourse I can make everything quiet, but to prevent clipping I have to make drastic changes and I dont want that.I want it to sound loud and clear.
Please give me some tips.How to put a solo over loud guitars/bass etc and put it upfront without clipping.Ive tried lowering the volumes of guitars and bass during solos but theres definitely a big difference in comparison with other riffs and it sucks during shifts between them.
Thanks in advance, later !

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Don't turn it up the tracks, turn up your monitoring, same thing without the clipping.

 

[lordtech]

try Gclip or Sonnox

 

[darthjujuu]

bring everything down. mix with headroom. ideally, nothing will be above -6db, but at the very least DO NOT push past 0db (even though itt'l let you). this is the key thing: your mix does not need to be loud, you bring up the entire mix to be as loud as you want when you're done (using gclip, or sonnox as lordtech said), or any limiter you can get your hands on, across the master bus. if you don't know what the master bus is, then just go the noob route and make a quiet mix, bounce it down (make a .wav file) and then import that .wav file into a new project. then put izotope ozone on it. you will be absolutely delighted. it won't be good by engineers standards, but you'll probably be thrilled.

 

[Trevoire520]

You only think it sounds better because its louder. If you don't want to mess with the balance you've got put all your tracks into a group and bring them down in level together, then record your solo and mix that in. Make sure nothing is clipping at any point in the chain (check the input and output of your plugins) once you've got your mix sounding good with no clipping then use a limiter on the master bus and get your loudness from that.

 

[scorpio01169]

for me, I start with Kick drum and bass because they put out the most energy, get a good mix between the two. then bring up the rest of the drums, then drop all that down to a group or sub bus, then bring up the guitars and get a good mix of them...then mute them. bring up the vocals get a good mix on them. keeping the kick and bass thumping around -6db get the vocals to sit nice with the drums. then bring up the guitars to a nice level. keep an eye on your master fader and make sure that the kick and bass are the only thing pushing it near or just above -6dbs. but that's just how I do it