Louder mix

T

torkolort

Inspired
When I have a backing track and I want to record something, I always tweak the Axe II until I'm happy with the tone and hit record. When I'm done, I never do any post processing. The only thing I do afterwards is to lower the levels until the clip warning is gone. This way my recordings always have very low volume. The backing tracks are usually maxed, so even a very low level guitar track will make it clip. I have no experience with compression and other post processing stuff so I'm googling for some info on how to make it louder, but I figured I'd ask you guys how you do it. I record in Cubase 5.

Thanks!
 
Hi Northman,

here just a few tips (this is a way too big topic to get it done with it, I know, but I hope it helps a bit)

1) Don't max the other tracks and "add" your guitars. Pull down the volume of all other tracks in relation to each other, so that you get about - 6 db Headroom on the masterbus.
2) Add your guitar(s), pan, eventually Low-Cut & HighCut to fit them in the mix, and then again take care to get your - 6 db Headroom again.
3) If your mix sounds "good" to your ears, put a loudness maximizer or a similar mastering plugin like a brickwall limiter to the masterbus
then it depends on - if you want to squeeze out the Sh*t of your material - your personal taste (it's all about taste) if you want to make it sound "death magnetic" (ouch) or make it sound "organic & dynamic")
4) Take care that your masterbus doesn't clip over 0 db, cause digital clipping is sh*t clipping ;-)
5) The "overall-loudness" has nothing to do with the quality of a mix.
6) A good trick IMHO is to keep the position of your single tracks and busses ALWAYS under the position of the master fader. So you can avoid distortion and clipping of the mix BEFORE you want to get it "loud"

I always tend to master my mixes toooo loud, cause I don't have real knowledge in "mastering"


Hope, there is something in my infos that helps you,

Cheers,
Andy from Red Bull Country
Unbenanntes Dokument (Rock-Funk-Metal made in Austria)
 
I'd to all of that except this

funkstation777 said:
3) If your mix sounds "good" to your ears, put a loudness maximizer or a similar mastering plugin like a brickwall limiter to the masterbus
then it depends on - if you want to squeeze out the Sh*t of your material - your personal taste (it's all about taste) if you want to make it sound "death magnetic" (ouch) or make it sound "organic & dynamic")
Click to expand...

when you have a good mix, bounce it with nothing on the mastering bus...

then create a new song / project, import your mix and then start playing with mastering tools [EQ, enhancing, multi-band compression, limiting, maximising]

it's good practice to handle mixing and master as two completely different events

it's also good practice to master with 'stems'

- kick
- snare
- lead vocal
- lead guitar
- everything else

or some prefer
- drums and bass
- guitars and keys
- all vocals
 
I would recommend iZotope Ozone 5 for a mastering plugin. I've used tons of others in the past including the Waves bundles and Ozone is my favorite. All the necessities in one vst. I still use this for all of my mastering in Cubase 6.5.

Also, always remember the rule of halves - when tweaking settings, play around until you are satisfied with the effect you are adjusting, and then cut that value in half again. It will get you to a more balanced end result much quicker.
 
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