Clipping

[Parrish]

I'm was wondering how others handle master bus clipping. I put a limiter on the master, but I suspect there are more appropriate ways to deal with this problem. Thanks.

[Parrish]

The discussion on one of the other forum topics seems to be suggesting that I need to learn how to gain stage properly. I don't think there is a problem with limiters, except when they are substantially limiting to the point of flattening the whole mix. Especially on the master bus.

[Anonymous]

Hey Lara,

Yes, gain staging would take care of that. For starters, you can just group all the tracks and lower the faders, that will reduce the level of the signal going to your master.

[Andrew MckenzieParticipant]

Hi Lara, even though I gain stage at the start, I still run a limiter on the master bus at the end of the process to make sure there is no clipping. At the moment I am using the excellent Ozone Maximizer and am really happy with it.

Also I use the master bus compressor on most tracks but just so it ticks the needle over slightly.

Cheers...Andrew

[Cris Sabater SabaterParticipant]

Hi Lara, yes gain staging is important. I tend not to let anything go above -12 on the meter of each channel and I send all relevant channels to a group bus too where I can control volume from for the whole group of channels. This way you have complete control over the overall volume hitting the stereo bus. It is also an idea to have a master bus placed before the stereo bus for overall control going into the stereo bus.

Cheers,

Cris

[Victor CiampiniParticipant]

Hi Lara, what the others said but my extra 2 cents. Based on my experiences, my tracks seem to breath the best where the levels are conservative, and that starts when I record the source. It is said that most converters and plugins are working best with levels in a range somewhere between -14 to -18 digital full scale. When I start a mix of a typical rock/pop I'll usually start with the kick and snare peaking around -10, and actually thats about as hot as I record them. Then I'll make sure to adjust the levels into and out of every plug-in to keep them equal. I like to leave a lot of room on the master buss, then you can always raise it. When I'm pushing the digital 0 on the master early in the game, my mixes end sound choked and lifeless. Hope that helps.

Cheers

Vic

[timmymacParticipant]

This is really where RMS meters shine and should be the default setting in every daw. Using an RMS meter I'll shoot for -20dB RMS over the loudest section of each track and then don't even have to worry about the peaks. It's like 0VU on a console. There's like 24db of headroom above zero! Occasionally, very dynamic stuff might have transients that clip so in that case I'll trim it down a little. Do that and you shouldn't clip the master buss. And it allows your mix to breathe. If you start slapping compressors and limiters on tracks/busses just to tame clips you may find that the dynamics are suddenly all gone and everything sounds smashed.

[Victor CiampiniParticipant]

Hey Timmymac, well said. I don't think most people when they first start out with digital recording (and I include myself for sure!) realize that 0 digital does NOT equate to 0 analogue . It would be great if DAW's could show a big 0 at what is actually -20 dbfs, because I think people would just psychologically focus on that as their gain target, and of course using RMS not peak.

Cheers
Vic

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