Where does your "loudness" come from

[otop]

Just want to see if a lot of you get your mixes at a good volume during the mixing stage or more when you apply the limiter/maximizer and other master bus goodies during the end of the process.

Also.. What part of the mix usually sets the standard as far as the loudness.. My latest mix has some very powerful guitars so I am spending most of my time trying to get everything up to the guitars' level instead of bringing the guitars/bass down.

 

[Sloan]

Overall finished volume should be attained during the mastering stage. Mixing at low volume is more accurate and will help mixes translate better as well as reducing ear fatigue. Concentrate on creating a clear and defined mix that pulls the listener along and makes them want to play it again when their through.

Generally kick and snare are the loudest according to peak meters. I like to think of guitars as 'filler' instruments. They just fill in the sound space what the bass, drums, and vocals don't, kinda like a glue i guess. It's all about everything having it's own defined space so that each sound doesn't obscure another.

 

[greyskull]

I do it later.

 

[morpheusmultimedia]

What I do is when I have a "finished" mix - I put a limiter on master and crank it up. then I listen what exactly and how was influneced by it and adjust the mix accordingly. this way you can eliminate most of the unwanted artifacts during the mastering process and thus increasing the possible "loudness factor" of your mix. I don't care about loundess during mixing, I pay attention not to have any peaks and overs throug the mix.

 

[Empathy]

Oxford native limiter on the master track when the mix is complete. Bring up the input gain, GR no more than 2-3dB, -0.2 safety. If I want it done properly, I send it to a mastering engineer. I try not to master my own mixes if I can avoid it.

 

[Trevoire520]

You get your loudness from mastering, but mixing also plays a role in the maximum loudness potential of your mix.

 

[tempe]

I'd say if you want a really loud master, you have to account for it in the mix. Mix into a bus compressor and use enough compression on the individual channels to keep things controlled and to raise the overall RMS. As for the actual mastering stage, I don't do that a lot anymore as I've just started sending everything off to an external engineer. I used a combination of T-rax clipper and Slate FGX in the past though.

 

[darthjujuu]

track and mix quiet. your finished mix should have atleast 4db of headroom on transients before hitting unity. then smack it with any of the flavor-of-the-week limiters, oxford, voxengo elephant, ozone, t-racks, you name it. this right here is nothing but one instance of elephant:

http://www.atomicballroomcalamity.com/metal3.mp3

 

[Erratic]

I usually mix with 7-10 dbfs of headroom left.
When I master my tracks(2-4 weeks after mix) I don't use nothing but a slight EQ (I don't roll off from 40hz It kills the power of the track in my opinion), boost the shit out of the end of the spectrum (if it wasn't done on my drums Overhead mix).
I may cut some mud around 300-700hz.
Use a compressor limiter but I don't overcompress usually 2-3,5 db is enough, then a brickwall limiter and most of the time I don't exceed 14-10db in perceived loudness (T-Racks).

That's for my death metal mixes.

EDIT: Otherwise for loudness you would overcompress everything in the mix, (Vocals,Bass,Guitars) put a compressor before your bounce then cut mud, roll of at 40hz(twice) use a limter and brickwall with saturation settings and you can get to -8db of perceived loudness easily.