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Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 7:56 pm
by TearsOfTheSun
What Level sohuld i finish my mixes i usually turn everything down but should should i boost it with a compressor or limiter or should i just boost it to a level in a program such as audacity if so what Db level on the metre

Re: Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 8:06 pm
by dca
This is a very vague question, and hard to answer without a reference and a goal....

but generally, your pre-master mixdown should have plenty of headroom. How much.. I dont know, depends on what youre going to do with it and who is working with it and what headroom they prefer when mastering, but general from -3 to -6db of headroom, some people mix even lower like -10db but the most important thing is you have at least a few db of headroom and nothing is clipping

as for boosting with a compressor or a limiter, and boosting in audacity... are you talking about mastering your mix? If so, just boosting the mix in audacity would not be the best idea. A combination of EQ, Compression, and Limiting on your finished mix would probably be a good place to start.

Re: Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 8:33 pm
by TearsOfTheSun
Basically i made a track kept everything low and eq but the final volume is far to low what do i do

Re: Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 10:21 pm
by cyclopian
If your mixdown is good, you can get away with just chucking a limiter on the master bus, and upping the gain imo, at least just to get the volume you're looking for.

Re: Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 10:33 am
by darkdubz
Yea like stated above, i also keep my final mix jumping between -6 and -3 for the premaster, but before i put a clip up on sound cloud ill open up Ozone on the master, its a pretty sick mastering plug in, i would suggest getting it and learning a bit about dynamic and eq, there are lots of tutorials on your tube about ozone,

Re: Final Mix DB Level

Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 12:19 pm
by AxeD
You generally don't want to increase the gain a huge amount with a limiter. The envelope of that limiter will drastically affect your mix, so it's going to be hard to set it. You can do whatever sounds right to you though.

I usually master a track to somewhere around -0.3dBfs, but it all depends on the medium really.
When mixing I aim to not go over -6 full scale. Everyone has his own preferences and tools for measuring though. Meters that display loudness units are very popular now for example.

I've got very good results with just a peak meter and a VU. TL Labs and Bombfactory respectively.