gain structure and mixing aka THE MONEYSHOT THREAD

[subfect]

Okay so... coming back to this beast of a thread (and easily one of my favs). I'm having some problems with a track of mine. I really thought I had gotten the mixdown pretty good - until I went and mixed it. Now let me add first that the fact that it's quiet doesn't phase me, I can always turn the gain up. However...

Soundcloud

I found that this track was redlining the mixer, even though it was super quiet. To the pros here - is there anything that stands out that is just way too loud or sounds off that could be eating up my headroom?

[nowaysj]

Yeah R6 has the mixer from Record, so it's perfectly capable to get a good mix ITB, but mixing outside out reason is the way to go imo

I haven't used record or r6, what is the problem with mixing in there now?

[ehbes]

Yeah R6 has the mixer from Record, so it's perfectly capable to get a good mix ITB, but mixing outside out reason is the way to go imo

I haven't used record or r6, what is the problem with mixing in there now?

absolutely nothing with the r6 mixer its no different from any other daw

[didi]

Doesn't R6 come with an SSL9000 strip on the master? Is it any good?

That plus the MClass plugins, really makes me want to take the jump and buy reason, then do all my FL mixing in there.

I'm basically just a sucker for any sort of vintage/analogue emulated processors

[Ongelegen]

Yeah R6 has the mixer from Record, so it's perfectly capable to get a good mix ITB, but mixing outside out reason is the way to go imo

I haven't used record or r6, what is the problem with mixing in there now?

absolutely nothing with the r6 mixer its no different from any other daw

Yeah there is nothing wrong with the mixer, it's pretty sweet tbh. The reason I mentioned mixing outside of Reason is I feel that VST equivalents of reasons mixing tools are better. It's easy as hell to rewire with S1 so...

[dullatron]

okay so this thread is humongous and I don't if someone has posted already something similar but here's my 2cents worth of advice for mastering.

First of all, mix your tracks well. This is key to a good and balanced mastering. There's all sorts of threads about mixing and I think it's more of a style thing than a rule thing so I'll skip it.

First thing you should hear in the song is that does it have piercing high frequencies especially in the hats and snare/claps. Listen to the track fairly loud and really listen what is painful if something is. Sometimes the snare might attack too brightly(5-10khz to look for) or nasty(1khz-5khz). By notching with a really narrow cut with a parametric eq, you can ease up the sound so it has more "loudness" abilities. if you can blast it louder without hurting your ears, it's usually better sounding at a club situation.

Next thing to listen to in the track is of course the bass frequencies. If the bass and kick is poorly mixed, there's only a few tricks mastering can do to help but I'd recommend really nailing this in the mixing stage. What usually seems to be the problem with low frequencies is that when you clip or limit then in the "loudness maximizing" stage, is that it becomes lifeless and unpunchy. i.e the bassdrums gets too clicky and dull all of a sudden. What helps to keep both of the kick and sub at a good presence is to slightly compress the low frequencies from 150/130hz downwards separately. You can do this on all multiband type compressors. I recommend a fairly high attack 25-35ms because you want the transient punch from the bassdrum and to let the lowest frequencies stay more untouched. try a 2:1 ratio with a kind of fast release 100-150ms. depending on the mix, 1-3 db of reduction should do the trick. keep in mind that you have to maybe boost the lows from the compressor by the same amount you're reducing.

Then it's time for the middle frequencies (140hz-4000hz) frequencies to be slightly compressed. I try to aim for reducing the snare just a hint with the multiband for extra glue in the mids. just 1-3 db of reduction should do the trick with a 15-20ms attack and a fast release of 80-160ms. the idea is to glue the snares, wobs, atmosphere and pads more together. you can boost this area slightly more than reducing because it's usually a good frequency range to bring some warmth and clarity to your mix.

Hope this helps some peeps out here!

[ehbes]

quick theoretical question, if i have solid mix peaking at -2 and i want to it be peaking at -5 is it better lower the master fader or each individual channel?

[therapist]

quick theoretical question, if i have solid mix peaking at -2 and i want to it be peaking at -5 is it better lower the master fader or each individual channel?

I think theoretically it's fine, it's when you try to escape clipping by turning the master down that you are just hiding the problem.*

Turning all the channel faders down (easy enough to do) seems a bit truer as a means of adding some headroom back in, though.

*As with just about every question in the last 20 odd pages, I think there will already be a far more accurate answer from Macc et al. already. It's a question of wading through all bullshit and 'hey, great thread, listen to my track' posts, though.

[e-motion]

@ehbrums1 it's the same. our DAWs work at 32/64bits so as long as it is at 32bits (it will be until it leaves the DAW), there is no clipping (even intersample).

The difference is basicly, if you lower the master, you'll have a final signal that's 0,5 * (A + B + C). if you lower channel by channel you get 0,5A + 0,5B + 0,5C which is the same. Volume changes are multiplications and we have the distributive property of multiplications

[Sonika]

If I've got a track with around -2.5 db of headroom, is that enough headroom to send it off to a mastering engineer? Or do I need more?

[ehbes]

If I've got a track with around -2.5 db of headroom, is that enough headroom to send it off to a mastering engineer? Or do I need more?

irony at its finest

[Sonika]

If I've got a track with around -2.5 db of headroom, is that enough headroom to send it off to a mastering engineer? Or do I need more?

irony at its finest

Lol I know but it's a legitimate question

[ehbes]

If I've got a track with around -2.5 db of headroom, is that enough headroom to send it off to a mastering engineer? Or do I need more?

irony at its finest

Lol I know but it's a legitimate question

just pull down the master a little and you should be good...thats what i gathered from my question

[Sonika]

If I've got a track with around -2.5 db of headroom, is that enough headroom to send it off to a mastering engineer? Or do I need more?

irony at its finest

Lol I know but it's a legitimate question

just pull down the master a little and you should be good...thats what i gathered from my question

Oh haha I didn't read that, I thought touching the master fader was a big no no

[ehbes]

i think its fine along as the mix is solid and not clipping

[nowaysj]

The point is to properly gain stage so you don't have to. But if you find yourself breaking your own rools, yeah you can lower the master. Just note that you are fucking up, and start lower next time.

[Sonika]

The point is to properly gain stage so you don't have to. But if you find yourself breaking your own rools, yeah you can lower the master. Just note that you are fucking up, and start lower next time.

Well it's not peaking because I have -2.5 db of headroom, so I wouldn't say I'm fucking up....I just don't have THAT much headroom

[eldoogle]

If you guys have Ableton and think it's a hassle to pull down each fader, you can hold down shift and click on each track and all selected tracks will be brought down.

If you're using another DAW I can't help.

[Sonika]

If you guys have Ableton and think it's a hassle to pull down each fader, you can hold down shift and click on each track and all selected tracks will be brought down.

If you're using another DAW I can't help.

....that's essentially bringing down the master fader. the whole point is you have to go through and gain stage all the different tracks to get headroom, then it's good

[thomascooper93]

So what exactly does it mean when someone says, "Set your drums at x dB"...does that mean i try to get each individual drum hit( ie kick, snare, OH's, etc.) all hitting at that level? Also if I'm layering multiple sounds to make my kick and snare, does it make sense that my two individual kicks are at about -25dB to combine to hit at -10dB and each individual part of my my snare (layered a clap, snare, and snippet of whitenoise) hit at like -35 to combine to around -10dB?

Hope this makes sense...I'm very new to production and I'm a little confused myself haha.