Clipping/Mastering Question - Cymatics Bass House FL Studio Project

hotelsweetmusic

hotelsweetmusic
I downloaded the Cymatics Bass House FL Studio Project from Free Download Vault - Cymatics to help me better understand song arrangement, mixing, mastering, etc. Their master has an EQ, OTT, and Fruity Limiter on it. When I bypass OTT and Fruity Limiter, the mix is peaking at at least +6db. When I turn back on OTT and Fruity Limiter, the mix peaks at 0db as it should. I'm confused why it's at +6db before the mastering effects. I thought you were supposed to mix peaking at -6db, then master to bring it up to 0db.

Almost all the individual tracks are up in the red as well. I don't seem to hear any clipping, however. Can someone explain to me the thought process behind all this?
 
If the sound isn't reaching above 0db there won't be anything to limit unless you adjust the threshold down on the limiter (in which case you would have to apply make-up gain after the limiter to raise it up to a 0db peak). Does that make sense? Based on my own mastering, my understanding is that that primary purpose of exporting at -6db is to make sure there's no clipping or distortion from accidental peaks, whether caused by equipment or user error when exporting. Since this set you have isn't a single exported track, there hasn't been any normalization so it sounds like the creator made it so it's still at the volume of a finished product. Hopefully this makes sense, I know I'm kinda rambling haha.
 
Limiter... Is something like compressor but much stronger. probably in this mix that was just an artistic move to make a song less dynamic and sound more compressed. But usualy limiter is used to make a song louder after mastering. In mastering you making your song more dynamic or less, you can use little equalization. If you starting with making music, just don't look at master channel becouse mastering is at higher level.
I hope my answer is good enough :)
 
Individual tracks in a DAW can go over 0 dB because the DAW works in 32 bit floating point. As long as the Master is below 0dB nothing is gonna clip. All these -6 db stuff is just to keep things organized I guess, but you don't really have to do it.
 
Please don't go over 0 with your individual tracks... Ha! A quick hit like a snare or kick, maybe yes. But anything else sitting in red has distortion written all over it. And why mix in red if you don't have to? It makes no sense when all you have to do is keep everything below 0, and then boost volumes properly in mastering.

So, your mix is +6db over level and your limiter is crushing it down. ANYTHING +6dbs over level will be distorted and to then limit it will only make the distortion lower in volume. but it will still sound like crap.

My headroom article will explain this better -

Headroom Before Mastering

I wish you the best of luck with your music!
 
Back
Top