"clipping" and meters

[Khan88]

I don't have much good info about what "clipping" is and what exactly the GREEN-YELLOW-RED meters mean.... I imported some samples from Hy2rogen and every time the kick drum hits, it goes into the high levels.

Are all tracks supposed to stay in the green? Is "clipping" just referring to the meter going into the red?


Thanks fam

[sleepy]

During the mix, I generally stay in the green with an occasional peak into the yellow here and there. You can always turn your levels down during mixing, so it's not important. Peaking during a mix will affect your audio so it's not completely irrelevant but there's really no excuse for clipping during a mix.

My master meter is usually fairly low and I use the volume knob to my monitoring device if I want to hear everything louder.

[Khan88]

1) I use Pro tools mp9, and on each tracks, lowering the volume on the fader does not effect the level of the signal. So, for example, if I import a drum kick like today (hy2rogen sample), It was going into the red, so I EQd out the lows and compressed it and now the levels jump to the beginning of the yellow (right above green)

2) Is it necessary to set up a master fader? Cant you just start the kick drum at 0DB on the fader, and adjust all the other faders accordingly, then bounce to disk?

Appreciate the help too by the way, I appreciate the passion from you all

[laurend]

1) I use Pro tools mp9, and on each tracks, lowering the volume on the fader does not effect the level of the signal.

??? First you should clear this weird behavior.

[Khan88]

??? First you should clear this weird behavior.

No I mean it lowers the volume, but the actual meter jumps to the same level every time. I am referring to the green-yellow-red markers that are on each track in the edit and mixer windows, two side by side for a stereo track, and one for a mono track, just to clarify (fader meters?)

[SafeandSound]

Best to understand gain structure:

Gain Structure

cheers

SafeandSound
Audio mastering

[Ace Noise Beats]

No I mean it lowers the volume, but the actual meter jumps to the same level every time. I am referring to the green-yellow-red markers that are on each track in the edit and mixer windows, two side by side for a stereo track, and one for a mono track, just to clarify (fader meters?)

Yeah that's how PT works. To visually see the levels changing you'll have to add a plugin to the inserts with a "gain" function. Reduce the gain and you'll see the level on the meter drop.

---------- Post added at 05:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:28 PM ----------

1) I use Pro tools mp9, and on each tracks, lowering the volume on the fader does not effect the level of the signal. So, for example, if I import a drum kick like today (hy2rogen sample), It was going into the red, so I EQd out the lows and compressed it and now the levels jump to the beginning of the yellow (right above green)

Is it necessary to set up a master fader? Cant you just start the kick drum at 0DB on the fader, and adjust all the other faders accordingly, then bounce to disk?

Appreciate the help too by the way, I appreciate the passion from you all

Yeah, set up a master fader. You need to be able to monitor the overall levels of the song. No, setting one track to 0db and adjusting the faders accordingly won't get you where you need to be. A track on it's own may not be clipping, but once you add other instruments/sounds the overall song will be louder, which may cause it to clip. This is why you need to check the master level.

[Khan88]

I'm just so confused on this whole topic of headroom, and mixing each track so the overall master fader does not clip...

So if I am mixing EDM Housy music, I set the kick at 0DB, then mix all other tracks as so? Does the master fader level always stay at 0db? When do you add the master fader, at the end?

[mwandishi]

From what I've learned here and my own experience. Each track is capable of pushing yo master level up. Even though the individual (kick or whatever)track isn't above 0db, when the tracks are added together they can push the master above 0, thus compromising the signal. Now for mastering purposes, a lot people mentioning keeping your master and individual track levels below at least -3dv, some people say -6, so when u start adding effects and what not you have headroom to play with without compromising the signals. This is just a summary from reading these threads and my limited experience.

[CPhoenix]

Use a VU meter to check your levels instead of the fader levels.


I saw this advice here and took it.... my mixes come out much much cleaner b/c I'm able to measure what I'm doing much better. To my knowledge, the fader meter measures a sound's level at every sample step, however the VU meter measures it moreso on an average. Your ears listen to music moreso on an average. So, which one should you be using... provided that your ears will be doing the listening?