I am struggling with the classic loudness issue. I have read loads of other threads about the same subject, but perhaps im a bit slow because i still dont fully understand. I seem to always find that when I add compression to a track (output or individual track), it just ruins the sound of it, no matter what i do to the settings. It may be because i like the sound of the wider dynamics and not the squashed sound. Obviously I need it because my tunes always seem quiet compared to other tunes i listen to. How can I make it to an acceptable loudness, without ruining the sound? and should I use a compressor on the output or not? what is an acceptable dynamic range? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx.
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17-10-2010 23:19
den_bert unregistered
Putting a compressor on your master wont make your tune magically louder. Its more likely it will ruin your dynamics.
Mixing all your elements is far more important: compression & limiting on invidual tracks, eq'ing to avoid frequency clashes, etc.
Also something that helps me create loudness is to keep guidelines on the volumes of different elements (in my case: sub at -14db, drums at -11db and keeping 6db headroom on the master). Doing so will prevent elements from eating your headroom and decreasing your loudness. If you have a nice mix, then you can push compression / limiting quite far on your master to achieve loudness.
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by den_bert: 18-10-2010 09:17.
Depending on the needs of the customer (or my own), I leave the average headroom in the song around -6dB to -3dB when mastering. I leave the last 3 or 6 dB so that drums can take their snap and pass the mastering compressor.
Use multiband compressor when mastering.
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I agree with berty about the mixing. It’s always highly important to have a clean mix, but in case you want to go really loud it has to be very balanced too. An unbalanced sound will never “appear” loud and makes your master bus compressor (depending on settings of course) create some mean gain pumping.
Let’s assume you have a clean and balanced mix, using a multiband compressor on the master is a good thing for your purpose.
The first element that will distort after cranking up the gain is the low end, which you should therefore compress harder (or turn it down in the mix in the first place). You will end up with a track that is less bass accentuated but you have to make a compromise.
Be careful with the multiband comp tho, the sound can be easily squashed and turn out unnatural. Tweak each band similar, use a low ratio and don’t forget to set the crossovers (don’t use the default!). Do limiting afterwards (you know the difference between limiting and compression I guess).
You can also eq your mix and boost at certain spots where the human ear is likely to be sensitive (somewhere in the upper mids). Don’t overdo it though and avoid a harsh sound.
OK. Thanx guys, thats really helpful stuff because I had been trying out using a multiband compressor on the output as well. I guess the problem will be mainly to do with the mix in the first place, I do try as much as I can to make sure that each sound has its own bandwidth in the mix, and is as even as it can be. But I think I do tend to make things a little bass heavy. Because I thought that was how it was meant to be in drum n bass. So, if i use a spectrum analyser on the output, am I aiming to get each frequency relatively even across the spectrum? If so that is where I am going wrong.
I always used to make the mistake to "mix into the red" on each channel and then tried to fix it on the master. This can only go wrong.
It's indeed a good idea to keep things quite low in the mixer with everything balanced and then use multiband compression on the master and crank it up in there.
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The trick is when not to use compression,
Like the second post states you will lose alot of dynamic from doing this
Personally i would use compression on the sample/channel then follow it with some eq to smooth of those rough heavy edges
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