Peak meter or rms meter monitoring?

R

Reezy

New member
Whats up guys! i have a question. how you guys monitor your sound level on master channel ? fl studio comes up with a default peak meter on master channel. but i found peak meter a lil bit inaccurate.i dont know why but everytime when 3 or 4 tracks play along, even though their volume levels are adjusted around 6db to 12 db, the master channel peak meter shows peak almost touching 0 db. which i dont want. i wanna keep atleast 3db headroom for later mastering work . (Note that i never put anything on my master channel. i prefer to do mastering after rendering them as high quality wav file)
 
The peak meter shows the sum of all sounds that are playing at once. The peak meter is accurate; it's showing the sum of the 3 or 4 tracks that are playing together. If you specifically want 3dB of headroom for mastering, you need to make sure that your peak meter never goes above that.

RMS metering is more for getting a general estimate of your dynamic range. (More of an average of levels). The meter in Wave Candy can be switched to RMS mode to display these values.

When mixing, your peak meters should never be near 0. If they are, that means your sounds are coming in way too hot.
 
Keep the master fader at the default setting and lower your other tracks to keep the master under -3db.

Feel free to add a glue compressor and mix through it, just an idea :)
 
Paschalis I. said:
Keep the master fader at the default setting and lower your other tracks to keep the master under -3db.

Feel free to add a glue compressor and mix through it, just an idea :)
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This guy knows whassup^

If you decide to put a compressor on your master track and mix into that, make sure to keep any attenuations you make very subtle (2:1 to 4:1 ratio max) with minimal gain reduction. It's a good way to glue your mix together and give it a more lively feeling and sound less "MIDI" and unnatural.
 
Jade Cicada said:
If you decide to put a compressor on your master track and mix into that, make sure to keep any attenuations you make very subtle (2:1 to 4:1 ratio max) with minimal gain reduction. It's a good way to glue your mix together and give it a more lively feeling and sound less "MIDI" and unnatural.
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Really agreed about the compressor settings, liked your post for that, might as well add that it's not wise to go lower than -4db at Gain Reduction
 
Yes, as has been said, turn everything _down_. Also look up a chart on not only the peak vs. rms difference, but digital vs. analog. It will be instructive. Turn down, and monitor at appropriate levels as well.

GJ
 
Reezy said:
the mixer tracks are already below 6db. should i lower them a bit more?
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It really doesn't matter as long as you never clip the signal.

Never clip it in the solo tracks or groups or master channel even inside the plugins themselves.. and you'll be fine :)
 
as many of you are telling me to put a compressor with a bit gain reduction. is it fair to use a compressor on master channel before sending the track to mastering engineer? and is it ok to squash the total sum of signals that way?
 
Reezy said:
as many of you are telling me to put a compressor with a bit gain reduction. is it fair to use a compressor on master channel before sending the track to mastering engineer? and is it ok to squash the total sum of signals that way?
Click to expand...

No, don't use any compression or limiting on your master before sending it to an ME. More often than not, your ME is going to want a clean, dynamic version of your mix.
 
Reezy said:
as many of you are telling me to put a compressor with a bit gain reduction. is it fair to use a compressor on master channel before sending the track to mastering engineer? and is it ok to squash the total sum of signals that way?
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If you're mixing through an SSL type of compressor (glue compressor with gentle settings) then yes.

It would be unwise to mix a whole track through it and then just remove it, your whole mix would collapse.

But never limiting/maximizing stuff that's for the mastering engineer unless you're going to master it :)
 
can you recommend a good FL supported VST SSL compressor ? . and can i mess around with the master channel volume fader to reduce the total signal below the 3db ? and by the way paschalis I i went through your website musicproductionTips.net. which is a super cool one i must say! great job Man! would love to see a article on panning and volume adjustment. :-)
 
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Ametrine said:
No, don't use any compression or limiting on your master before sending it to an ME. More often than not, your ME is going to want a clean, dynamic version of your mix.
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Actually if the mixing engineer is extremely experienced and knows the sound he/she is going for then slight compression on the master can be a good thing because it shows the mastering engineer the kind of sound the artist is going for. Taking the compressor off the mixbus could be detrimental to the overall mix, especially if they mixed with the compressor there the whole time (a common technique used among respected engineers).

Cheers!
 
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Reezy said:
can you recommend a good FL supported VST SSL compressor ? . and can i mess around with the master channel volume fader to reduce the total signal below the 3db ? and by the way paschalis I i went through your website musicproductionTips.net. which is a super cool one i must say! great job Man! would love to see a article on panning and volume adjustment. :-)
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Let me clear your mind by answering you with a question:

If I peak all tracks (drive all tracks in RED which is a no-no)
and I reduce the master channel fader to get the signal below -3db... Will the peaks still be audible? Of course, they'll be!

So as I mentioned, don't peak anything in the tracks and adjust the volume at the tracks themselves
leaving the master channel at the default setting.

Thanks for your kind words, I really appreciate it :)

Actually, there is a panning article in there, but I can't post a link I once did and got an infraction, so please
use the website search function instead, it's easy to find!

You won't find an article related to volume, and if you do chances are that will speak nuts cause there's no right or wrong value for volume.

Volume can change if you use an EQ, Compressors, Reverbs pretty much everything.

Hope this helps , let us know if you need anything else cheers!


EDIT:

If you can't afford an SSL type compressor then try to mimic it by using around 30ms attack, Auto Release and Gain Reduction with -2db to -4db max, Ratio 2 or 4.
I usually mix through it and it helps glue the tracks easier.
 
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oooo! great information Pachalis but i still prefer to reduce the mastering channel volume to 1 db maximum.:D because even though i reduce some harsh sharps on mixer channels still mastering peak gets over -3 db sometimes. seriously dont want to keep things at -25db on mixer channel. this way i cant even monitor as its too quite and even the main volume doesnt help .so i wanna keep everything between -6 db to -20 db. and i wanna keep the total thing fresh for mastering man so i choose not to use a compressor on mastering channel. let the man with golden ears handle it :o and nice to hear that there's already a article on panning on your site :o so is there an article on reverb too? pardon me if im sounding a bit "greedy" :p
 
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Reezy said:
oooo! great information Pachalis but i still prefer to reduce the mastering channel volume to 1 db maximum.:D because even though i reduce some harsh sharps on mixer channels still mastering peak gets over -3 db sometimes. seriously dont want to keep things at -25db on mixer channel. this way i cant even monitor as its too quite and even the main volume doesnt help .so i wanna keep everything between -6 db to -20 db. and i wanna keep the total thing fresh for mastering man so i choose not to use a compressor on mastering channel. let the man with golden ears handle it :o and nice to hear that there's already a article on panning on your site :o so is there an article on reverb too? pardon me if im sounding a bit "greedy" :p
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Continuing replying about the blog will trigger the mods (and I won't blame them) so please just use the search function as you did for compression.

Sorry if I sounded rude , I hope you understand my position here on forum, there are rules I've got to abide to :)

Well the peaks does not matter if they go through -3db or not, the peaks should be shaved anyway if they don't
have anything musical to offer. :)

I use L1 limiter to do that by the way, just for extra information if it helps
 
cool ! sorry for the blog related question. i didn't get the 'mods' anyway.:P nice meeting you great man! hope to bother you again with new issues someday:D
 
Jade Cicada said:
Actually if the mixing engineer is extremely experienced and knows the sound he/she is going for then slight compression on the master can be a good thing because it shows the mastering engineer the kind of sound the artist is going for. Taking the compressor off the mixbus could be detrimental to the overall mix, especially if they mixed with the compressor there the whole time (a common technique used among respected engineers).
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I see your point, but why is there even a compressor on the master channel in the first place? And if taking off the compressor ruins a mix, then it's a bad mix. I guess I've never understood the concept of working into a compressor / limiter...

Anyway, I think it'd be better to send a mastering engineer two files. One that has a clear master channel with no fx. And one that has the compression, EQs, etc on the master. The purpose of this one is to give the ME a general idea of the desired sound.

I just feel that if you are going to pay an ME to master your track, you should leave track-wide compression in his hands.
 
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