 limiters in mixing stage? |
bm84 
Bone Man
Registration Date: 14-11-2007
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anyone use limiters during the mixdown? i know it is used primarily as a mastering tool but do many of you use it on individual tracks? Ive just started experimenting with it on the drums and so on, but being careful of not ruining its harmonic content
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21-12-2009 16:44 |
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Pure_bordem
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Registration Date: 27-11-2009
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I use a limiter only on the master track because I don't want to go above digital 0. Remember limiters are just a steroid version of a compressor and if used right can be advantageous in controlling volume and evening out the peaks.
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21-12-2009 20:26 |
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demure
mastication fo de nation
Registration Date: 22-01-2009
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sometimes use one on the drums if they are a tad peaky after compression, just to clip the peaks off and get it sounding nice and round 
dont use stuff on the master
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21-12-2009 22:35 |
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tryptech
Tryptech
Registration Date: 16-08-2006
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limiting the whole is a very delicate issue, so use the limiter subtle. Just limit the elements that need limiting, cuz you dont want that flat commercial scheisse sound.
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ANALOGUE (Tryptech)
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22-12-2009 02:48 |
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BattleDrone
2161... the future.
Registration Date: 30-12-2005
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A limiter is a good way to catch the occasional peak imo. If a limiter constantly has to "work" on your tune it means that you are doing it wrong.
If you need to pump levels in order to get it loud enough it might be that all the other stuff is too loud already or you are trying to use instruments that use the same frequencies.
I tend to put less and less stuff on the master lately, plugins like Ozone might seem a cool solution, but the risk of overdoing it is real. The less shit you put on the master, the more room for improvement you leave for a mastering engineer to fix up your tune. If you pump everything up to a constant -0.1dB ceiling your tune will be loud but stupid and no mastering engineer can repair that.
I try to concentrate on making a good tune, if it is good enough to get signed I'll give it to a mastering engineer to give it that pro touch.
I put a soft limiter on the master, as a last step in the FX chain, just in case.
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22-12-2009 10:15 |
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Pure_bordem
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Registration Date: 27-11-2009
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personally I keep the limiter on the master and a graphic EQ before and after it that dont do anything except show me levels across the freq spectrum before and after the limiter. Although remember, I dont blast my levels to begin with so its essentially a peak controller.
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| the more room for improvement you leave for a mastering engineer to fix up your tune |
I personally don't want them to do too much since im the audio guy myself (kinda my profession haha) For me mastering is the art of making good sound tracks work with one another as best they can. In a more recorded medium such as jazz per say, there can be recordings from across the country or even world and each will sound a little bit different even if using the exact same mics, premaps, placements, etc. So the mastering engineer is suppose to make it sound like it was a performance with one song after another.
Since we are most often afforded the luxury of samples and synths that dont change unless we make them so, I try to get my mix almost dead perfect as I go, with slight masterings compression and limiting and then when I bounce them all down and want to CD them I then put them all through a compressor again, but the same one and it gives a more unified sound to the tracks if done right.
Ive found that slight gradual compression in multiple stages sounds better than one hard smack to the audio, and by doing it stages you have more control.
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| you dont want that flat commercial scheisse sound |
Remember not all "commercial" sound is bad, its a style just like anything else. I personally don't find all that much dynamic range to electronic music, especially in a dance/club scene. A produced sound to me is a clean and unified sound, granted a lot of music is so clean its sterile and boring, but if done tastefully, produced/commercial really ends up being professional sounding.
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23-12-2009 06:57 |
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