Mixing levels and headspace

[setyouranchor]

Before I come across stupid, this isn't one of those, I need an exact level for everything!!!, kinda questions.

Recently I've been tracking A LOT queiter than I use to. I know everyone has their own way of mixing, e.g bass up for -18 and work around that, kick and snare first etc

I've started with my drums before my next tracking session. I'm happy with how its sitting but I'm just wondering if anyone starts with the kit first?

I'm peaking around -10/-9 on my master bus (with fader at 0). Is this enough headroom to start tracking the rest of my song?

I know there's know micracle set of numbers, just seeing if that's too little or too much!

Thanks in advance

 

[Fox Mulder]

As long as it doesn't clip it should be fine.

 

[visceral]

I work in a similar way, but have recently started leaving a bit more headroom. You might want to check out the recent post by AudioPhile777 about gain staging.

 

[Fama]

*blah blah*queiter
*blah blah*micracle

Sorry, hope you're not offended, I've had 5 (or maybe 6? Meh, let's be sure, I'll down another one and go to sleep. Then it's at least 6.) beers in the last 30 minutes and I still only noticed the misspelt(?) words.

So yeah. To answer the question, as far as I know, with the modern DAW's having 64bit bussing things and 32 bit fancy thingymabobs, I think it's pretty safe saying that you have enough headroom (and even if you don't, just turn every drum fader down a bit, and you'll have more. I'm pretty sure that works.). Just be sure that none of the individual faders are clipping, and that the master channel isn't clipping.

About the beers: Yes I'm from Finland. And yes, I might regret this in the morning.

Edit: Oh no! I spilled (or spilt, I think they both work?) my beer! Noooooo...

 

[tempe]

Sorry, hope you're not offended, I've had 5 (or maybe 6? Meh, let's be sure, I'll down another one and go to sleep. Then it's at least 6.) beers in the last 30 minutes and I still only noticed the misspelt(?) words.

So yeah. To answer the question, as far as I know, with the modern DAW's having 64bit bussing things and 32 bit fancy thingymabobs, I think it's pretty safe saying that you have enough headroom (and even if you don't, just turn every drum fader down a bit, and you'll have more. I'm pretty sure that works.). Just be sure that none of the individual faders are clipping, and that the master channel isn't clipping.

About the beers: Yes I'm from Finland. And yes, I might regret this in the morning.

Edit: Oh no! I spilled (or spilt, I think they both work?) my beer! Noooooo...

Amazing.

 

[SafeandSoundMastering]

-10/-12dBFS on master out at 24bit res seems about right, remember your drums are likely to be the source with the most transients. You will find that the headroom gets eaten into when the low end appears in the mix.

Specifically from a mastering perspective the criteria is as long as it's below zero it's good. The wider concern is your recording/mix gain structure and if when your mixing the full music your hitting -12dBFS or thereabouts you are golden !

As more instrumentation gets added headroom gets gobbled up and you may feel or sense that -18dBFS is viewed as a fairly low level to start with for your rhythm section. But remember pro audio cards D/A(outputs) are normally ref'd at -18dBFS or -20dBFS = +4dBu = 1.227Volts RMS and then it does not seem such a bad place top be afterall. Remember the meter scale is logarithmic and -18dBFS just looks very low but it isn't ! Peaks at -4dBFS are actually pretty hot !

Also plenty of info here :

http://www.whatisaudiomastering.com/

 

[setyouranchor]

Just seen the rest of these comments! Thanks a lot SafeandSound I did actually end up tracking my guitars around the -12. -11 mark. My mixed turned out WAY better than my previous mixes. I think my main problem I was strugglign with in mixing was infact...tracking too hot!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7188427/VacantMIX1.mp3

This was all using the techniques from the gain-staging thread which helped a bunch As much as I could understand anyway