Hitting the Red and not sure why

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Hitting the Red and not sure why

Postby BronyMetalMix » 04 Apr 2015 08:37

Hey there guys. I wanted to post here cause I seem to be needing some help or at least suggestions on what I should do. I've been finishing up this track and I like how it sounds so far. Even the mix I'm liking. I'm in the mastering stage right now. No matter what, I seem to keep hitting the red by like .3-1.0db. It doesn't help that Logic Pro X's meters suck by not showing anything past 0db. I'm hoping some of you can help or at least give suggestions as to what I can do.

http://imgur.com/ltsZGqS

That is a picture of how the mix is looking so far. Do any of you see anything that I don't? Anything I can do at all?
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DAW: FL Studio 11, Logic Pro X
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Re: Hitting the Red and not sure why

Postby Freewave » 04 Apr 2015 13:25

Just so you're aware what most people recommend is that you go far below any chance of peaking w/o limiter or master compressor in place initally. You might even turn down your master volume to do that if you have to, and what you'll get is an unmastered version of your track (which you should enocde as a 24 bit vs a 16 bit wav). Again with 0 clipping being essential and often not even close to peaking at the top.

THEN you'l import that single wav file and do any mastering as a second step with a multi-band compressor and any other plugins you might need. This 2 part process allows getting all the full dynamics and quality of the music and avoiding any peaking or limiting of your signal. Doing both steps as one process often clips, squashes your sound quality, and taxes your cpu/ram. The multi-band compressor is the Last chain on your mastering process as if you throw reverb or anything else (even a straight lined eq) after you will likely get some clipping / hitting the red.

I don't know that DAW at all so i can't recommend what may be wrong with that individual project but hope this advice might shed some light on a way to get past your current hurdle and have a better music making process in place as a general process.
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Re: Hitting the Red and not sure why

Postby BronyMetalMix » 05 Apr 2015 07:22

Freewave wrote:Just so you're aware what most people recommend is that you go far below any chance of peaking w/o limiter or master compressor in place initally. You might even turn down your master volume to do that if you have to, and what you'll get is an unmastered version of your track (which you should enocde as a 24 bit vs a 16 bit wav). Again with 0 clipping being essential and often not even close to peaking at the top.

THEN you'l import that single wav file and do any mastering as a second step with a multi-band compressor and any other plugins you might need. This 2 part process allows getting all the full dynamics and quality of the music and avoiding any peaking or limiting of your signal. Doing both steps as one process often clips, squashes your sound quality, and taxes your cpu/ram. The multi-band compressor is the Last chain on your mastering process as if you throw reverb or anything else (even a straight lined eq) after you will likely get some clipping / hitting the red.

I don't know that DAW at all so i can't recommend what may be wrong with that individual project but hope this advice might shed some light on a way to get past your current hurdle and have a better music making process in place as a general process.


Thanks man,
What I ended up doing was no plug ins on the master channel. I listened to the song once more to make sure it never clipped. Giving myself some headroom as well. I ended up bouncing it as a 24-bit, highest quality possible .wav file so that when it's exported into the final MP3 and .wav nothing would be lost(Hopefully.) I brought it from Logic Pro into FL Studio on my other laptop cause of the Maximus Plug in.
Things to Improve on in 2015
MOAR SONGS!
Transitions
Chord and Melodies
Mixing
"Flow of Energy" in a song

DAW: FL Studio 11, Logic Pro X
VST: Nexus, TAL-NoiseMaker, Komplete 10,
Equipment: APC40, AudioBox USB

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BronyMetalMix (Username was before Note Wise.)
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/notewise
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/notewise
User avatar
BronyMetalMix
 
Posts: 74
Joined: 26 Sep 2012 14:23
OS: Windows and Mac
Primary: FL Studio, and Logic Pro X
Cutie Mark: Electronic and Guitar


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