limiter/maximizer reduction

know_ledge

know_ledge

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I mix and partially master my own music hip hip/rap. what are you guys usual gain reduction on the limiter? I heard someone say they go between 2-3 db reduction. I know of course its different with all songs, but im trying to figure out how much I should be limiting


thanks alot
 
There's no definite answer to this question, as you discovered yourself, it's a matter of taste.

You're already approaching mixing/mastering the wrong way by concentrating on the numbers, when the only thing that matters is how it sounds.
 
Wallengard said:
There's no definite answer to this question, as you discovered yourself, it's a matter of taste.

You're already approaching mixing/mastering the wrong way by concentrating on the numbers, when the only thing that matters is how it sounds.
Click to expand...

A slippery slope.

And it's also a matter of capability. Some people barely touch 1. Some touch 4 and I have no idea how they make it sound good. Squashed dynamics is common in Hip-Hop (depending on your perception of squashed).
 
Lots of times, I'll get somewhere around 2-3 dB of gain reduction going on. Anything more than that and I find I'm killing the track.

Every track is different and I never pay attention to the numbers. But I think ever moderately loud finished master will have at least 1dB of gain reduction in the limiter going on. If you keep the limiter's release down, it stays transparent.
 
I dont even know how much dubstep producers go for.

Some folk musicians probably don't even break 1db.

It truly does depend on the song. It's the same for compressing individual instruments. Some will tell you never to break 6db. But I've seen stems for some track where the drums have like 9db of compression, and it just sounds ridiculous when played solo. In context, it's amazing. I've seen the same for vocals.

I would just say limit until you don't like it anymore, and make sure you A/B it with the same perceived volume, so you don't think one is better because it's louder. The loudness wars trend is starting to go down, but do whatever you want. I will say that if you concentrate on whether or not it's fatiguing your ears, you might fatigue your ears more than it would if you just listened to it. At least, I do.
 
I know it's standard and all, but why if it "always seems to kill the track" and little is more, then why throw on a limiter in the first place?

Just asking, tbh.
 
I don't think anybody said limiters always kill tracks. Some people really like the sound of limiters. There are whole genres that rely on pushing limiters to their *ahem* limits.

If anyone says a limiter always kills or ruins a track (as if to say limiters inherently ruin music no matter who uses it or what kind of song they use it on), they are just trying to sound like an engineer to get credibility. A lot of people that don't respect music like to talk about dynamics to pretend they respect music. And for every dude that says they hate over compressed music, there's a bunch of people that love it and don't even know it. I always hear people saying "If they heard dynamic music, it would blow their minds!" Not true. You could play dynamic music for a lot of skrillex fans and they would probably hate it. And whether or not you like skrillex is truly irrelevant, because he has a massive following of people that love him and a massive following of people that hate him. If you make the music you like, with the dynamics you like, and convey the emotion behind it, there will be people that like it.

But, surprisingly, an engineer or producer is not one single person with a single set of morals. Rick Rubin doesn't record the same way Bruce Swedien does, but there are people that like both Michael Jackson and Run D-M-C. Anais Mitchell won't be as compressed as Kendrick Lamar, but I honestly consider their tracks equally good.

I listen to really compressed music, and I listen to really dynamic music. Just depends on my mood.

I'm not sure if this is true, but when I was talking to a local producer and showed him "Coronus, The Terminator" by Flying Lotus, he said that lotus was purposely driving the kick into the limiter and distorting it. No idea if that's true, but it's not unheard of to use a limiter the same way someone would use saturation.

So it totally depends what you're going for. This is art after all. Limiting can sound good in context, Singing out of pitch can sound good in context, dissonance can sound good in context, and me making out with a mannequin in front of a microphone can sound good in context (be right back).
 
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However, when someone complains about their sound being squashed or being ducked, 99 times out of 100 it is the default fruity limiter on the master track inside of FL unless they have changed their default project settings (that is the 1 time it is likely to be something else they are doing)

not saying you are wrong but just pointing out that for beginners the problem almost always is the limiter they don't even know they have in place
 
I think the default setting now is a ceiling of 0 and a bit of increased gain, so they could certainly squish it but only if they were gonna clip anyway. Which I did, a lot, years ago. I suspect that's also why a kid convinced me to switch from fl, saying it always messed his tracks up. High School.
 
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