Mastering Question : -10db rms enough for you?

Sorry for the dumb question, but when you guys say "-10db rms", are you talking about the peak levels on your Master bus after applying compression, limiting, etc.?
 
not the peak levels but the loudness. rms is basically the difference between your peak level (fopr example -0.3 db) and the average energy of all other
signals.

RMS = Root Mean Square
describes perceived loudness of a signal.

a guitarcabinet at 110 db will never be perceived equally loud
as a snare at 110 db.

so in a mix, RMS would describe the energy levels between snare transients
and guitars/bass/vocals for example...

hope that helps.
 
Mastering Question : -10db rms enough for you?

I don't care. I push until it starts sounding bad. PERIOD. being -15 or -9.

I find some mixes start sounding bad at -15 some sound fine up to -9. It really depends on the mix.

I think it depends on the the music asks for.

Metal, well, clients generally want it loud.

Other stuff, well, depends. I tend to use automation for stuff that needs to be very dynamic yet really loud in parts (post rock/avant garde stuff).

For me the line is when it's starts sounding overcooked. I don't care how many RMS or peak it is, that's just numbers.
 
Hello guys. I find all that interesting, but I just don't get those RMS calculus. I mean, I understood the explanation given upper.

I get the db FS well, at 0 it is clipping, so I basically put my limiters to -0.3dbfs too, and try not to mix too loud before the premastering process.

But how do you know the number of dbRMS you are dealing with ?

Here I have Reaper opened. My peakmeters are from -54 to 0, so they are dBFS.



By the way, I must admit Virus from Hypocrisy is the loudest I have ever heard, and is clipping too much. It's too bad cause it's also a really good album.

Recently I have mixed a little jazz band in my promo class, my mix changes from being overcompressed :)
 
Ok I got it now. What made me think it wasn't that is the fact that the RMS meter shows the peak as -12 for example in my last project, but the actual reading on the meter is a bit less than 0 (and it's the RMS only that I'm seeing). Do you know why ?

Anyway I see you like Reaper too. I had it for several months but I finally decided to jump into it. And it's wonderful !