Commercial records clip at 0dB or 6dB? (Maximizing Song Volume)

  • Thread starter Thread starter illapino
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by far im no expert. listen to my tracks. Im still developing my ears for mixing but i feel that im doing a good job. i know for a fact that i need to work on my mixing but if i/we dont let others hear what we mix then i/we will never get better. what i do is listen to other types of music and adjust mine to how theirs sound. ill. practice and practice it will come in time. dont rush your craft. if you have something that is fuxing with your head let it rest and come back to it. i found out that if i start on a project and it sounds good, it sound crappppy after i let my ears rest then i can fix it and then i do the same format until im content with the mix.http://www.myspace.com/mrreeproductions
 
I saw before that the number of -0.03 was refrenced and that is the number to shoot for. Most commercial audio devices ( cd playes , car systems , dvd players and whatever ) tend to try and upsample your audio ( samething video game systems do that are not real hd ) and tend to clip or overload there d/a if you dont leave them just that little touch of headroom. You cant hear the diffrence of 0 and -0.3 but if you leave that little area you wont ever have any issuses on playback no matter whos playing the audio.
 
my Guy Joe said:
Yeah, i have mixed a couple tracks that are on par loudness wise as well.

Besides, you should mix to like -8 to -6db, that way when the master engineer works his magic, he has some room to work with. Besides, here is a surprise for some of you, in almost all situations, the mastering engineer is only working on stereo track, not your 50 track mix.
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Absolutely. I'm going to give you advise, in which it seems no one else wants to give you. Follow my guy joe's instructions as far as the mix volume is concerned. (If you want something to sound as professional as possible you're going to want to have a professional mix AND master your project.) Otherwise if you just want to get volume out of your mix put a limiter such as the L3 on your master fader. Pump it. There's your volume. You might have problems reaching the volume you want and having your mix still sound clear, but none the less.
 
I've concluded that letting the master channel peak at +6dB brings about the same volume level as major and radio recordings. Distortion doesn't occur between 0dB and +6dB, making the red color really misleading ... I don't know why you guys are telling me to only peak at 0dB. It's so Quiet down there!
 
+6 db is not a level in digital audio. The highest the audio can go is 0dbfs in digital audio. I think you are confussed with the meter in fl studio. Forget about that meter.
 
May I recommend a Maximizer? I use waves Multimaximizer (L3) It works great. If you have sonar Use the vintage plug in that comes on producer 6 version.... it has a setting that will boost the volume of the mix greatly without making it clip..... good luck.
 
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alright if you all say so.

But then please recommend me a new dB Meter that can replace my 'faulty' Fruity dB Meters ... And hopefull it's something free, not Waves, coz I'm on a tight schedule of getting some songs done here, and that novelty stuff is hard to find locally ..... THANKs
 
Fruity meter is NOT faulty, it's just don't show what you think it shows.

0DB is the max in an audio. Anyithing that'd go above it, it became distorted. There are no more room to store the waveform.

FL shows it's own levels, it can go above 0Db if it couldn't, you could not make the track louder.


Anyway, a louder mix doesn't mean that it's peak (the loudest point) is higher than the quiter mix, it means it's more compressed and the quiter parts are LESS quieter than the quieter parts in the quiter mix.

you can get your mix louder by using a limiter or compressor. you have to compress more. Doing this is easy, but keep the mix sounding good at the same time is not. It takes experience and maybe a professional engineeer.

and yes L3 is doing this, but I personally don't likei t because it makes the mix pump and annoying. this is just my opinion.
 
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Even if I do let a mix go above 0dB and peak at +6dB, I hear no distortion ... I'm real confused
 
FL gives you 6 dB headroom.

+6dB on FL's master meter equals 0dBfs

if you amplify it even more, then it'll be distorted, because you can't go above 0dB (on the meter its +6dB)
 
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Straight said:
+6dB on FL's master meter equals 0dBfs
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Finally, someone said it in plain English.
Thank You!! Now it makes sense
 
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^^^ No one "explained it in plain English", almost everyone gave you the right answer: It's impossible for a digital recording to go over 0dbFS, and that ties directly into your question about where commercial CDs peak. Which is around 0dbFS, these days.

Don't try to pretend it's everyone else's fault for you not understanding the basics of your DAW, i.e. how the meters work.
 
hey, my job is to make music. I never wanted a part in the technical aspects like differentiating between "0dB" and "0dbFS" and actually knowing how it applies to music production since no wikipedia article will be specific to what MY use of deciebels is, or whatever other topic or term I've unfortunately had to torture you with -- but the technicals is obviously something I have to do now. Just to keep my music sounding professional.

Again: Thank You !
 
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illapino said:
hey, my job is to make music. I never wanted a part in the technical aspects like differentiating between "0dB" and "0dbFS" and actually knowing how it applies to music production since no wikipedia article will be specific to what MY use of deciebels is, or whatever other topic or term I've unfortunately had to torture you with -- but the technicals is obviously something I have to do now. Just to keep my music sounding professional.

Again: Thank You !
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Hey, if you do something and you are good at it, then that is good. Alot of cats around here get caught up in the technical talk and still dont have a deep understanding of what makes music beautiful. Worrying about 0db, 0dbFS, dbV, dbmV, etc will get you no where if you dont do good music. That is priority Numero Uno.........:cheers:
 
A commercial cd should peak at -0.03dbfs due to the "up sampling" home audio and car audio systems do. That little bit of headroom will keep it from not distorting during playback. - short answer.
 
illapino said:
hey, my job is to make music. I never wanted a part in the technical aspects like differentiating between "0dB" and "0dbFS" and actually knowing how it applies to music production since no wikipedia article will be specific to what MY use of deciebels is...
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well, simply use the term "dB FL".
(i've hear 9th wonder does it a well)
 
Marol said:
Worrying about 0db, 0dbFS, dbV, dbmV, etc will get you no where if you dont do good music. That is priority Numero Uno.........:cheers:
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No way man, everyone knows its the room hahahaha
 
what tha hell is wrong wit chall mayne, i've been doin this for 6 yrs, my whole hood tells me damn, where yall record yall music, i tell them, in my damn house, and they still don't believe me... I get much respect on my mixing and mastering... master of fact, i got a couple people coming in a couple of dayz for me to record and master they ****... You just have to know what your doing, understanding what you r doing.
 
illapino said:
Finally, someone said it in plain English.
Thank You!! Now it makes sense
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glad i could help ya


you just mixed the meters

so if you want to know where your stuff peak, use the upper meter in FL. it shows the real dBfs
 
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