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delete system32

This will save a bit of space on your hd in a pinch.

deleted s32 and ive now got loads of HDD space and the mixdown is sounding fresh as a daisy

thx m808

Get used to the idea of mixing and mastering as separate jobs.

People put so much effort into mastering these days because they don't really know why they are mastering a track. Ultimately you don't need to master a tune until you are putting out an EP or album. The point is to add some normality to a few tracks, meaning there isn't too much of a switch in the sound from one tune to the next.

As for mastering to make a tune loud... this is not a good idea. It will always affect the sound quality. Using limiters to make the volume louder is only necessary if the tune needs to go above the threshold you set the limiter at (which will be at around 0db) which in turn will squash any audio going above that threshold. This to me is just as obvious as the tune clipping slightly these days. If you are clipping on your master before you're at a reasonable volume level, then there is something wrong in the mixdown.

Here is how I would go about solving this:

1. Bring all your tracks down to 0.
2. Turn each one up one by one to where it should be reasonably sitting (starting with Kicks - Bass - Snare - Vocal usually as these will usually (for me) take up most of the spectrum)). I tend to take kicks up to between -3/-4db.
3. As soon as you bring in a track that causes your master to clip - STOP. Something is going wrong.
4. Get some freq analysers where it seems the problem will reasonably be. look for clashes. Often I find it helps to open a freq analyser on a bus with the too 'suspects' to see if there is an obvious boost. EQ the problem away. It can take some time and isn't as obvious as it maybe should be at times but that's what needs to be done.
5. If EQ aint quite cutting it, pull out a compressor. Add some slight compression to the culprit tracks. Mess around a bit and see if it helps at all. My thinking here is that I'd rather squash one track down a bit to save having to squash the whole tune. Also consider sidechain compression. This can work wonders in a mixdown and doesn't always have to be obvious.
6. If this isn't working then I will often considering a sample change. If, for example, the kick and bass just aren't working together then I will think about trying a different kick or working on my bass patch a bit. Sometimes 2 sounds just don't seem to work together on a sonic level. This is rare, but can happen.


Get your tracks sounding good and loud enough in the mixdown. Mastering is for later and it's goal is not to make your tune sound amazing, it is to make a track sound coherent within a group of other tracks.

Thanks mr echo!
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