Peak level of mix

[Alphanumeric]

Apologies if this may sound unread,

but you always hear about how a mix 'must' not really peak above -6dbfs, -3 at the most, so this gives headroom before mastering. Ok, this makes sense.

But when I/you/master engineer recieves the track, and the put it onto a new session, and they want more headroom than - 3 to -6db peak ..... can't the gain just be turned down???

I understand that messing around with gain on TRACK or mixbus levels within a session full of plugins with all sorts of dynamic processing WILL affect the away the input/threshold of the compressor reacts, especially when using vu analog emulations (of comps, or saturation/tape, vintage eq etc),

Cheers

 

[Studdy]

Low end RME?

 

[Plendakor]

I would think the gain can just be turned down as long as the source was not peaking.
Could be wrong though..

 

[waltz mastering]

Apologies if this may sound unread,

but you always hear about how a mix 'must' not really peak above -6dbfs, -3 at the most, so this gives headroom before mastering. Ok, this makes sense.

But when I/you/master engineer receives the track, and the put it onto a new session, and they want more headroom than - 3 to -6db peak ..... can't the gain just be turned down???

Peaking around -6 dBFS is just a loose guide line. As long as you are not hitting full scale or clipping any plugs or channels, there is really no problem, ..because if an ME wants the signal to be lower to optimize the gain when hitting an analog chain they can just attenuate it or turn it down easily.

 

[xFkx]

stop beeing such a smartass, the man just gave you an answer and you're still somehow trying to prove that all people that try to adhere to this unwritten rule are somehow sheep, and you have broken out of the matrix and see the blinding light. Bah.

 

[Plendakor]

If the peak voltage of your signal is licking -0's balls without having its tongue in -0's ass hole, you'll be able to lower the volume digitally to your liking. Keep the sinus waves away from +0's anus. <- before the A to D conversion.
All transients are not equal so you will lower the gain to keep the peaks of those highest transients away from the transient-clipper motherfucking limit.
That's not parroting tho, a simple observation.

 

[AzzaDutt]

Yes if the peak level is high, then it can just be turned down.

What's more key is the crest factor [Peak level - RMS], as this is what is critical to mastering. You want to leave a fair crest factor as this is critical to the role of the mastering engineer, and is pretty impossible to undo.

 

[aortizjr]

If you actually follow that guideline of -6dB peaks and -18 dbRMS with the master fader at unity, it really helps with gainstaging.

So keeping things lower help prevent mixbus clipping, intersample peaks, plugins clipping etc. Always exceptions of course and you can still be blowing things up. But it helps and by not driving things into oblivion, which is super easy to do, things will be clearer, cleaner, and more dynamic.

 

[schismatic]

I usually end up having like 4-8 instances of FreeG on each of my tracks sometimes in order to ensure I keep to about -18dB RMS and between -8 and -4 peak depending on the dynamic nature of the track. This helps you to simulate being near 0 dB on VU meters when hitting plugins. Take VCC for instance. If you hit it at -18 dB rms or 0 dB VU, then when you start to crank input, you're starting to drive into the red as per analog equipment - it's just a bit more similar to using hardware in that sense. Use of Nebula also requires this approach to get the best results.

 

[Full_Tilt]

But when I/you/master engineer recieves the track, and the put it onto a new session, and they want more headroom than - 3 to -6db peak ..... can't the gain just be turned down???

Yes It can but if there are loads of useless low end frequncies that you cant hear properly but still push up the peak levels then turning things down will just turn down the useful requencies aswell .

Its whats called "the loudness war" .

 

[SoundsLikeFog]

Its whats called "the loudness war" .

I thought loudness war was about bands being scared shitless that listeners found out that their music doesn't kick ass without the smoke screen of extreme loudness.

 

[Full_Tilt]

I thought loudness war was about bands being scared shitless that listeners found out that their music doesn't kick ass without the smoke screen of extreme loudness.

They wanted the loudest sounding recordings yes but they couldnt get it (head room) with out rolling off the least useful frequencies . Theres a close relationship between the loudness war and preserving head room . These days its just standard practice especially with the guitar and bass sounds that are popular now .