Preparing a mix for mastering, headroom?

**C Royal** · 05-03-2012

I recently finished a project and am now in the stages of mixing down all the tracks. I'm currently mixing in Reaper. I have a basic (and limited unfortunately) knowledge of mixing and know nothing of mastering which is why I'll be seeking professional services for that phase. I do know that most MEs like to have the mix peaking no higher than -3dbs.

My question is, if I get to a point where I'm really happy with my mix and the master is in the red, say +2 or +3 dbs, can I just drop every track in the mix say -4 db (or until I hit -3dbs on the master)? I should also note that none of the stems I'm mixing are clipping. Logically this makes sense to me, but like I said, I have a basic knowledge of mixing.

**jasonalanjohnson** · 05-03-2012

You should link the tracks. I don't know Reaper, but in Pro-tools you can link tracks and then they can be raised and lowered in amounts proportionate to their starting dbl. The function maintains your current mix. Unless Reaper sucks, it should have the same function.

**rocksure** · 05-03-2012

Firstly make sure that you use sensible gain staging when mixing. If you don't know much about what that is, read a tutorial I wrote:
Audio Recording Gain Staging | Rocksure Soundz

Do you have any plugins on your busses? Check that none of the inputs to those are clipping. Then make sure that your buss stems are set at levels that won't drive the master buss too hard. Lower the buss stem volumes till you get what you deem to be the correct overall master buss level.

**C Royal** · 05-04-2012

Thanks Jason. I wasn't sure at first how to link the tracks in Reaper, but eventually figured it out. Much faster compared to bringing each track down one at a time!

Tony, with regards to gainstaging, I try to export all my tracks in the range of -8 to -10 dbs, which after reading your article may be way too high. From what I can tell none of my stems are clipping (i.e. in the red).

**moses** · 05-04-2012

To make sure everything is alright, always export to 32bit floating point format.

You can then either send the 32bit fp file to the ME. Or alternatively, normalize the 32bit fp file to 0dB, save as 24bit fixed point format and send it to the ME.

There's no concept of "headroom" in the digital domain (it's either zero for fixed point format or infinite for floating point), and there's no need for any wasted space when sending files to the ME. Headroom is a property of electronic circuits, not audio signals.

**laurend** · 07-12-2012

Just lower your master fader. Why don't use it?

**everbeatz** · 07-14-2012

I've put few words/guidelines regarding this subject

Everbeatz Studios: Preparing files for mastering

**trkkazulu** · 07-14-2012

Make sure that your 2 buss isn't RMS'ing higher than -10db. The lower the better. You can always turn up your monitors if you need more volume while mixing. Once upon a time, we used to put 'gain' plugs on each channel set to -10 to emulate channel 'trim' pots and kept all of our faders at '0' using dynamics plugs as needed to control volumes in the mix while mixing into a buss compressor. That tended to result in a good sound and i still use that approach sometimes, depending on the material.