Should You Keep EVERYTHING Under 0dB?

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Bravado

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Hey everyone.. I record Hip-Hop music and I practice mixing on every song I record.. So I have a question.. I use Adobe Audition 1.5 to record vocals and FL Studio 8 when making beats.. In FL Studio, you can set a compressor and limiter to the master mix so that it never exceeds 0dB, but when I record vocals in Adobe Audition, the vocals will be below 0dB, but the overall track with the beat and overdubs and adlibs will exceed 0dB obviously.

Is there any way to add a compressor or limiter effect on the the overall song as you're workin on it like FL Studio could do or should I just bring the overall track down until no part peaks and then mix down the whole track and raise up that volume using limiters and compressors?

I've been curious about this for a while now, so I'd appreciate it if you could help me out with this.
 
Audition 1.5 doesn't have a master track. Later versions do though.

Also in Fl don't put anything on the master, you don't want to track through a limiter then mix its a bad idea. Keep everything under about -12db and then when you mix, mix to about -6, one you have mixes te track open the exported file into the edit view then put the limiter on if you wish.
 
Bravado said:
Is there any way to add a compressor or limiter effect on the the overall song as you're workin on it like FL Studio could do or should I just bring the overall track down until no part peaks and then mix down the whole track and raise up that volume using limiters and compressors?
Click to expand...
Yes. You can create a "bus" output and route all tracks into this bus (which essentially is an FX track, just like in FL).

In audio track, click on Out 1 (under R S M buttons).
- New Bus.. (effects window pops up)
- Add whatever effects you need, press OK
- Check the "Same for all tracks" box so it will set all tracks to this bus output

When you mix down the tracks, the bus effects will be processed as well.
 
Im Using Fl8 Also What I Do Is Export The Track Out Of Fl8 And Split Mixer Tracks So That Every Sound Has It Own Track Inside Nuendo,cubase,pro Tool,logic,adobe Or Whatever You Use To Record Vocals Then I Use The Efx I Need.
 
in any case you should keep in mind the aspect of mastering headroom!!!
keep the track under -12DB as noted above. the trick is to keep the master fader pegged at 0DB and adjust the individual tracks to achieve the above headroom.
u can add the DB meter plugin in the master channel to aid in setting the levels so that you maintain the desired headroom
for example, if the vox need a boost of 5DB but in so doing compromises on the headroom, you can still achieve the same results by reducing the other tracks by 5DB. u get the added advantage of headroom!!
 
oggy said:
in any case you should keep in mind the aspect of mastering headroom!!! {...} u get the added advantage of headroom!!
Click to expand...

what is the advantage of headroom in a digital environment? i don't get it.
 
yes, under 0db unless you want to have clipping and lose some of the sound artifacts that create a full sound in stereo.

Panning is key too.

as far as ^^^^ headroom ina dig environment


sound is sound whether produced in 1's and 0's or produced as a wave it all ends up as a wave of sound and needs to be designed to play well with the other sounds that are matched in the same sound scape.
 
I find more advantages in "foot room" then headroom in digital audio, but regardless all the advice here is good, just use your head when recording and know that anything over 0dbfs is going to clip.
 
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