mixing before mastering

[corybrunnemann]

how low are you guys doing your mixing?! like as you're recording? pro tools starts everything a 0 dbs, and it takes about 2 tracks to be clipping. so are you turning everything down a lot? just wondering bc a lot of my recent mixes sound pretty good, but there's distortion and stuff isn't sounding the same after mastering. please help!

 

[kool98769]

excluding drums, I usually leave everything at 0, and send it to busses, then lower the volume of the busses that go to the out. Drums, obviously you have to balance those out pretty desc. I usually do that first, then send them to the drum bus. But I usually end up turning down the drum bus a pretty descent amount.

 

[JeffEstrada]

I'n reaper I just put all my tracks In one folder and I constantly bring the level of that folder down as I mix by whatever it takes so that its always peaking around -9 dB's.

 

[ShredderForhire]

Trim plugin on the master buss...
Cubase has built in input gain control that comes in handy for this

 

[AndrewB]

Trim plugin on the master buss...
Cubase has built in input gain control that comes in handy for this

It seems like you'd want to trim the input gain on each of the individual tracks as opposed to on the master bus, because then each of the plug-ins before the master bus could be running too hot/soft.

Any reason for doing that? Or maybe I misread your post?

To TS: The first thing I do before I mix anything, which has helped my mixes sound SO much cleaner and clearer, is to use the input gain on each track so that each track peaks at around -16 db. You should also be balancing the input volume with the output volume on each plug-in.

 

[corybrunnemann]

Trim plugin on the master buss...
Cubase has built in input gain control that comes in handy for this

to make sure i'm reading this right, such as on ozone, turn down the INPUT fader?! then how do i get everything at commercial volume? magic? haha

 

[ahjteam]

If the gain staging on some of the plugins wouldn't be that fucked up loud to make the plugin work properly for example in FG-X or Waves CLA compressors, I would keep the prefader levels around at -18 per track, but I usually just compensate on the groups and master bus (I usually have -6, -12 or -18 dB trim at the beginning of the master bus depending on the amount of tracks)

And you get everything to commercial loudness levels at mastering, not mixing.

 

[timislegend]

-keep kick around -18db

-mix around the kick

-make sure master fader is around -13db

headroom = optimized!

 

[Seth Munson]

When mixing I select all tracks and drop them anywhere from -10 to -16 and then start from there.

Cory, I'll message you on FB when I get home just like I promised.

 

[ShredderForhire]

In order to keep my master from clipping while tracking i kick the input gain on the master channel down by like 7 db. This gives the channel more headroom before peaking and i dont have to fight with things in the tracking stage. But that's not a quick fix because you have to still make sure you are mixing at the appropriate levels across the project. Take the -18dbfs advice, mixing too hot ITB will always yield ugly results.

 

[fuimjb]

I do what Seth does, Just drop all my tracks until the loudest is to where I want it to be.

 

[ahjteam]

just wondering bc a lot of my recent mixes sound pretty good, but there's distortion and stuff isn't sounding the same after mastering. please help!

Just noticed this, I actually made a video about this. Listen what is distorting, then drop that before hitting the limiter. Usually that is the low end of the bass/kick or the presence on guitars.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eigIh9nC2f4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLB60737DC19C96A86[/ame]