Is it possible to do 'limiting' in Reason?

[doomtube]

cheers, weird story i live in streatham and until a week or so ago had little idea about the dubstep sound/scene.. any how i went to croydon this week on the train and listened to benga all the way there/walking around/all the way back... even went in that mixing record shop with my ipod on!! looked dubstep up on google only to discover i was on top of the whole thing!!!......

[futures_untold]

Just out of interest, how did you find out about dubstep?

[the great void]

Am I right in thinking if you did have a brick wall limited you could just wack up the bass and it wont distort/clip? but you could bring more of the freqs up and give it more bang?

like the guy said u got to watch out u dont muddy things. When you compress and limit stuff, although u can sort of get it louder u tend to lose a certain depth to the sound if that makes any sense.

It all depends what ur doing with the track. If you are just want to have ur track on mp3 and have it sound as good as it can to send to people and listen back to, then what people are saying here about using the mastering suite/using slight compression on your overall track or aspects of it etc is probably the best bet. Just try and even off those really high peeks in the sound without effecting the bulk of the track too much so u can then push the overall volume higher.

But, if you are exporting your tune as a serious thing to be sent off to a record label or whatever, and then off to mastering, I would think twice about using too much compression and limiting within you tune itself and I definatly wouldnt use any kind of post production tweeking/master etc on it. like peoiple have said it will get sent off to be mastered, where some guy who does this all day for a living will stick your tune through a bunch of eqs and compressors and all sorts of profesional quality shit that will do a better job than we can do on our pcs. Like someone said just balance the sounds in your tune and let them deal with it unless your an expert on these things, which Im definatly not.

[futures_untold]

will stick your tune through a bunch of eqs and compressors and all sorts of profesional quality shit that will do a better job than we can do on our pcs

Why is it assumed that mastering engineers will always do a better job then people with pro audio apps on their pc?

What if I happen to have all the same kit as the fellows at the mastering house?

Furthermore, if I know the theory, and generally can achieve decent mixdowns by myself, why would I send my track to a 3rd party to possibly ruin what I'd worked so hard to achieve!!?

The only way I'd ever let someone mess with one of my tracks is if it were being pressed to vinyl and the cutting engineers needed it changed for a technical reason.

Louder doesn't equal better!

[slothrop]

Why is it assumed that mastering engineers will always do a better job then people with pro audio apps on their pc?

What if I happen to have all the same kit as the fellows at the mastering house?

I know people who've got all the same football kit as Christiano Ronaldo...

[the great void]

will stick your tune through a bunch of eqs and compressors and all sorts of profesional quality shit that will do a better job than we can do on our pcs

Why is it assumed that mastering engineers will always do a better job then people with pro audio apps on their pc?

What if I happen to have all the same kit as the fellows at the mastering house?

Furthermore, if I know the theory, and generally can achieve decent mixdowns by myself, why would I send my track to a 3rd party to possibly ruin what I'd worked so hard to achieve!!?

The only way I'd ever let someone mess with one of my tracks is if it were being pressed to vinyl and the cutting engineers needed it changed for a technical reason.

Louder doesn't equal better!

if you had all the gear they have in a proper mastering studio in your house and u knew how to use it you wouldnt be posting a question on dubstep forum asking how to use limiters/compressors in reason. If you know what ur doing on that level and have tens of thousands of £ worth of gear then u dont really need to listne to anyones advice.

Im not doubting that maybe u do have all that gear and maybe ur get the ebst mixdowns possible. But Id say people like Photek, Source Direct etc used to use untold proper hardware, not something like reason, and theyve made some of the tightest, most influencial uk dance music in history, Id say theyre fairly tight when it comes to getting mixdowns right, but all their records have been mastered. Infact Id go as far as to say 99% of the music u own by other people has been mastered by a mastering engineer. So if ur in that 1% of people who are so tallented and stocked up with pro quality hardware that they master their own stuff or dont even need mastering then good for u, but it question what ur doing posting in a forum full of people needing to know what button to press in massive to make 'that wobble sound' in massive etc.

At the end of the day what im saying is if you even need to ask about compressors and limiters then trust me, a proper mastering engineer in a mastering studio knows what hes doing more than urself and if your using reason then u can bet whatever hardware compessors and eqs etc they have will do a far cleaner job than u can.

[futures_untold]

At the end of the day what im saying is if you even need to ask about compressors and limiters then trust me, a proper mastering engineer in a mastering studio knows what hes doing more than urself and if your using reason then u can bet whatever hardware compessors and eqs etc they have will do a far cleaner job than u can.

I agree with your point hehe, but I didn't post this thread lol.

I'm still skeptical though..... Maybe I need to get some of my tunes played on big systems and a/b one or two of them before and after mastering...

[serox]

I am just all for learning as much as possible to help improve the mix and overall sound quality using the tools I have available.

[the great void]

I agree with your point hehe, but I didn't post this thread lol.

I'm still skeptical though..... Maybe I need to get some of my tunes played on big systems and a/b one or two of them before and after mastering...

hehe, no bruv thats cool, I know u didnt post the thread, and like I said Im not questionin your production u might be really tight. I was just sayin why I gave the guy the advice I did. Like, Im no genious, theres probably a sheadload of people on here who are wya past my level and shouldnt listen to anything I have to say. I dont pretend to have all the answers, or even seriously educated advice, Im still learning as I go too. I hope one day I can master my own shit, but I know Im wayyy off that kind of knowledge atm, so for me if I released a tune tomorrow Id feel better leaving in in a proffesionals hands. I dont even have a monitor setup Id trust to give a clean enough sound even if I did know what I was doin

[slothrop]

At the end of the day what im saying is if you even need to ask about compressors and limiters then trust me, a proper mastering engineer in a mastering studio knows what hes doing more than urself and if your using reason then u can bet whatever hardware compessors and eqs etc they have will do a far cleaner job than u can.

I agree with your point hehe, but I didn't post this thread lol.

I'm still skeptical though..... Maybe I need to get some of my tunes played on big systems and a/b one or two of them before and after mastering...

Send one off to Bob Macc and you can check it out for about 25 quid or whatever - which is considerably less than the cost of serious monitoring, processing etc stuff. And no I'm not on commission although I'm beginning to wonder if I should be.

From the A/B's I've heard it doesn't need a big system to hear the difference.

[macc]

I'll buy you a pint when I see you Slothrop

I came in here not knowing you'd posted mentioning my thing, and was going to try to address some of this bloke's concerns. I wasn't going to do the hard sell... that's what you're here for

Anyway (BTW I know this is off topic and I'll try to go back on topic after)

Why is it assumed that mastering engineers will always do a better job then people with pro audio apps on their pc?

Experience, objectivity, monitoring, gear I have all those pro apps, plugs, UAD cards etc too. Now I love my UAD (love em!). But none of the plugins I have can do what my hardware can do, end of story. Not even close.

What if I happen to have all the same kit as the fellows at the mastering house?

Then you should be running a mastering house And you're probably very rich. But you still won't have objectivity, and money for gear doesn't equate to experience

Furthermore, if I know the theory, and generally can achieve decent mixdowns by myself, why would I send my track to a 3rd party to possibly ruin what I'd worked so hard to achieve!!?

Objectivity. Listening on a different, better, monitoring setup through better conversion with unbiased and experienced ears. You only get one chance to hear something for the first time, and that first time is where the overall picture can be assessed, the problems stick out. Let's put it this way - if you haven't heard it by the time you mix it down, you aren't going to hear it at all. Something like that will leap out instantly to the ME, whereupon he can correct it, or if necessary, request you to correct it.

Even if your mixdowns really are that good, a good ME can take it up a further level or two. And even if your mixdowns are perfect, the comfort having someone who has worked on 5/10/15/20 tracks that day already reassure you that you're as good as you think can be worth the investment. As some famous old rock bloke said 'I pay my ME thousands of dollars to tell me he doesn't need to do anything'.

But most of the time, improvements can and will be made

The only way I'd ever let someone mess with one of my tracks is if it were being pressed to vinyl and the cutting engineers needed it changed for a technical reason.

May I ask, have you had a bad experience in the past? You seem to think MEs are hell-bent on mangling your tracks before taking your money and sending you back a smoking hot ball of mashed limiting. That simply isn't the case. MEs take VERY great pride in their work, and know the importance of word of mouth to their business. They should listen to your wishes and do their level best to fulfil them. Mastering is much more about dialogue than you seem to think. It is the highest most absolute aim that the artist (and label, if that is a consideration) is happy, and if you want less/more limiting, less/more bass, they should listen to you and make it so. If there is a specific reason they would advise against it, they will tell you, it's your choice whether to go further etc etc.

Speaking for myself, I send extended (2 mins or so) wav clips back to a person for approval before money is even mentioned. If the person wants a tweak here or there then I am happy to do it, and there's no financial commitment until they are happy. I'd be more pissed off than anyone if the artist was really unhappy with what I did. I am a musician too and I totally understand where you're coming from. So I don't let it happen

Louder doesn't equal better!

Not sure where this comes from or where it is directed, but I totally agree - louder is louder, better is better. Not the same thing at all, and after a point they become inversely proportional.

All said with a smile, just trying to set a few things straight that's all.

*Trying to get back on topic and summarise *

There's a hell of a lot more to mastering than limiting. But if you want to just get something up to level and try it out in the car or against some other track then why not go for it If it is going to someone else for mastering though then leave all that off - a good ME should be able to get a louder, punchier, better sounding result and need less limiting to get there.