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Head Room
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Twisted Reality
Started Topics :
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Posted : Jul 17, 2010 16:31:32
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Hi
Im new to the forum and thought I would jump straight in with a question about headroom.
Im sure from browsing the various posts that I can get some some advise.
I have heard and read various bits of advise on the subject of leaving enough head room on the kick and the bass for mastering purposes which makes perfect sense given that mastering should raise the overall level of your given piece of music. However being a relative newbie to music production I have been slightly confused by the method which is best to use.
The most common thing i have heard is that the Kick drum should only peak at about -8db and then your bass around -8 to -5db depending on how you want it to sit with the kick......this sounds fair and easy to do.
However I have also heard that its a good idea to bus the kick and bass out to an aux channel to help bind them together mabe with a compressor or limiter depending on what u want to achieve with your sound. So do you run the individual kick and bass channels at -8db and then the aux channel at 00db or the individual kick and bass channels at 00db to get the most out of the sound and then once the two are sent to the Aux channels bring the combined signal down to -8db?? Or am I completely off the mark here??
I have also heard from various places that its best to get the max signal and strength from a sound and not worry about head room as if this can be achieved at the mix stage it will in turn require little mastering, which again also seems to make sense...or at least it does to me
If anyone could provide some sound advise to clear this little dilemma up for me or even techniques that are used I would be most happy.
Many Thanks.
T-R
P.S. I hope what i have written is understandable. I look forward to making some new friends in this forum.
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Inner Demon
Started Topics :
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321
Posted : Jul 17, 2010 17:45
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Welcome!
Try using the search, these things have been discussed at length in various threads.
Setting the kick at -8 and mixing the bass with that is perfectly fine. Grouping them is a good idea, not only for 'gel' compression but for filter fx and stuff.
Don't worry about 'getting the most out of the sound' - you're being fooled by volume, that's all. If you put both kick and bass at 0, and then bring the group down to -8, the relative levels between kick and bass are unchanged and probably completely wrong. You need to mix them.
Also, you need to worry about headroom. Mixing at high volumes can cause clipping, distortion and other nastiness. Requiring 'little' mastering is not a term or a benefit. Mastering is mastering, regardless of whether you bring the volume up a lot or a little. Better to leave space for a crisp mix and boost the volume at the end. Most importantly, leave that to a professional mastering engineer.
Cheers |
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Twisted Reality
Started Topics :
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4
Posted : Jul 17, 2010 18:28
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Quote:
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On 2010-07-17 17:45, Inner Demon wrote:
Welcome!
Try using the search, these things have been discussed at length in various threads.
Setting the kick at -8 and mixing the bass with that is perfectly fine. Grouping them is a good idea, not only for 'gel' compression but for filter fx and stuff.
Don't worry about 'getting the most out of the sound' - you're being fooled by volume, that's all. If you put both kick and bass at 0, and then bring the group down to -8, the relative levels between kick and bass are unchanged and probably completely wrong. You need to mix them.
Also, you need to worry about headroom. Mixing at high volumes can cause clipping, distortion and other nastiness. Requiring 'little' mastering is not a term or a benefit. Mastering is mastering, regardless of whether you bring the volume up a lot or a little. Better to leave space for a crisp mix and boost the volume at the end. Most importantly, leave that to a professional mastering engineer.
Cheers
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Thanks Inner Demon. That has been a great help.....nice1  |
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APriest
Started Topics :
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Posts :
98
Posted : Jul 17, 2010 22:43
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Quote:
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On 2010-07-17 17:45, Inner Demon wrote:
Also, you need to worry about headroom. Mixing at high volumes can cause clipping, distortion and other nastiness.
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I don't agree, in floating point math you can mix (sum then numbers) at +48 dB (example), than you can lower the master volume and you haven't any clip or distortion, you get clip/distortion if you use an hardware mixing console. |
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Inner Demon
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
321
Posted : Jul 18, 2010 04:28
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Colin OOOD
Moderator
Started Topics :
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Posts :
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Posted : Jul 18, 2010 19:45
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and enjoy the result which will make you write threads like this on forums:
