alienmermaiid
New member
I am reading “Zen and the Art of Mixing” by Mixerman. He says “There is a point in the mix where most solutions involve nothing more than half a dB change in level” what exactly is a dB change??
Super beginner question
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The Funk Junkie
Moderator
I'm assuming you have a DAW like Fruity Loops, Ableton, or something else right? What he's talking about is adjusting the volume on an individual track within your project by a small amount (in his case just .5). In real life, when you play the music, the db (decibel) volume will be determined by how much you crank up your stereo, but in the mixing world it just means relative to all of the other tracks in the song.
If you want to get a little more confused... When mixing, the loudest amount you can have is 0 db, so your volume is viewed as a negative amount, relative to 0 db (the max for the entire song, going over 0 will create nasty, unmusical distortion). So what he's saying is sometimes all you have to do is adjust an instrument or track from -10db to -10.5db to balance out the overall mix. Hope this helps.
If you want to get a little more confused... When mixing, the loudest amount you can have is 0 db, so your volume is viewed as a negative amount, relative to 0 db (the max for the entire song, going over 0 will create nasty, unmusical distortion). So what he's saying is sometimes all you have to do is adjust an instrument or track from -10db to -10.5db to balance out the overall mix. Hope this helps.
Last edited:
Tom Javelink
New member
Exactly what they wrote above me, plus one fact which helps you to imagine the things. 3dB plus/minus difference means double volume level. For example a mix with -5dB RMS is twice louder than a mix with -8dB.