Mixing/Mastering Confusion

[Habanc]

Maybe I just don't pay attention enough to the mixing/mastering tutorials I watch, but I have a few conceptual questions that I really can't find a clear answer on. Mixing and mastering seem to be essential, so I figure I better ask a few things before I form a bad habit or two.

1) In mixing, is it wrong to turn down the master volume? I try my best to keep the song steady around -4 dB, but sometimes there's just odd peaks that bump up and clip. I've tried refraining from turning down the master, but sometimes I may have to lower it a bit. I have a feeling that simply turning down the overall volume of the track does not help with clarity.

2) Is there really any difference between a limiter and a compressor? Isn't a limiter just a compressor with a high compression ratio of 10:1 or something in that area?

3) Well, it seems a tad embarrassing to ask, but I've been so wrapped up with actually going out and creating material, that I've never quite touched base on the exact point of mastering. I've assumed it's generally making the song as loud as possible without clipping, but I'm not confident enough in that assumption.

4) Is the use of multiband maximizers, in my case FL Studio's Maximus, a good idea when mastering? I kinda get this general feeling that people find Maximus as a cheap, ineffective way of mastering a song. Or more like a "Wow you use Maximus? Fail," gist.

5) Stereo Separation. When is it good to use, and where? Adversely, is there any good places to merge the stereo sound, or should I just stick away from it?

I'm sorry if there has already been topics before on this, but I went back a couple pages and didn't see much.

Thanks so much for putting up with my inquiries!

[the4thImpulse]

Maybe I just don't pay attention enough to the mixing/mastering tutorials I watch, but I have a few conceptual questions that I really can't find a clear answer on. Mixing and mastering seem to be essential, so I figure I better ask a few things before I form a bad habit or two.

1) In mixing, is it wrong to turn down the master volume? I try my best to keep the song steady around -4 dB, but sometimes there's just odd peaks that bump up and clip. I've tried refraining from turning down the master, but sometimes I may have to lower it a bit. I have a feeling that simply turning down the overall volume of the track does not help with clarity.

2) Is there really any difference between a limiter and a compressor? Isn't a limiter just a compressor with a high compression ratio of 10:1 or something in that area?

3) Well, it seems a tad embarrassing to ask, but I've been so wrapped up with actually going out and creating material, that I've never quite touched base on the exact point of mastering. I've assumed it's generally making the song as loud as possible without clipping, but I'm not confident enough in that assumption.

4) Is the use of multiband maximizers, in my case FL Studio's Maximus, a good idea when mastering? I kinda get this general feeling that people find Maximus as a cheap, ineffective way of mastering a song. Or more like a "Wow you use Maximus? Fail," gist.

5) Stereo Separation. When is it good to use, and where? Adversely, is there any good places to merge the stereo sound, or should I just stick away from it?

I'm sorry if there has already been topics before on this, but I went back a couple pages and didn't see much.

Thanks so much for putting up with my inquiries!

I will do my best to answer these questions

1 - I would recommend turning the master channel down at least 4dB, I usually have mine at -6. If something is peaking in the odd place find what instrument/sample is peaking and put a limiter or compresser on it just to catch the peak. Turning it down will ensure nothing is peaking and will give the mastering engineer lots of room to work with.

2 - Your right, a limiter is just extreme compression, usually a ratio of infinite so nothing gets past it. I'm sure theres more to it but I don't understand the diffrence enough myself to talk further about it.

3 - Once you have wrote a song (created all the parts) and mixed it down into one track you send that file to the mastering people so they can get the mix up to a commercial volume. Mastering has no effect on the creativity thats gone into the track they simply add compression/ limiting, mid/side eqing, maybe slight harmonic distortion ect..

4 - I personally wouldn't use a multiband maximizer for mastering but for mixing parts of the track together (and even then I typically don't use them). It doesn't matter what you use where as long as you get the result you wan't, that said there are always better ways to do things and people will always call various vst's 'nooby'.

5 - Typically most club systems these days are in mono, which means anything outside the stereo field will be absent during playback on such a system. Mostly reverb/delay sounds will exist in this area so limiting them closer to the center will alow them to be played on the mono system byt will make a stereo one sound less exciting. This article has a lot of info about the stereo field.

A good rule to follow is keep the bass drums and synths in the dead center of the mix and layer everything else around them.


I hope this helps.

[colortwelve]

I can only competently answer a few of these, but here goes:

1. I never turn down my master volume. When I start a track, I make sure the limiter is off, and when the time comes to start mixing and mastering, I adjust the dials of pretty much everything but the kick and the master volume (an actual mastering engineer I know told me, when he gave me my first track to mix, that you should build the mix around the kick - don't turn it down at all), and do a lot of EQing. Good EQing will carve every non-essential frequency out of each instrument, solidifying each one's place in the spectrum. If you pay enough attention to EQing, and do it well enough, you should both eliminate instruments clashing with each other and keep the volume from jumping out of control. The limiter is just a final touch to add an ideally very subtle volume ceiling that restrains what few sounds you do get leaping out of the mix. TL;DR - Try to EQ your way out of needing to lower the master volume.

3. Mastering does involve making a track as loud as possible while maintaining audio quality, but real mastering is much more nuanced, involving EQing, stereo mixing, and effects. A mastered track, ideally, is loud but not pumpy (pumping essentially being unintentional sidechaining - compressed sounds making the rest of the mix fade out and making the volume sound jumpy when the waveform is really just an evil wall of noise), EQd well so that each instrument comes through clearly, and effectively stereo mixed and not just mono.

5. Generally, you want your lower frequency sounds - bass and kicks - plus vocals, if any, merged to the center, and higher up sounds more separated, with hi-hats and the highest sounds completely separated. Stereo separation adds a bit of perceived volume to each track you do this with as well, and can be used with effect plugins to make some really cool vocal effects, but, again, in general vocals are merged. What I do is usually layer a sub-bass that is completely merged with a crunchier with more mid/high-end merged about 50%, the low kick completely merged and the higher-end kick about 75% merged, snares 50-60% separated, lead synths and hi-hats fully separated, and pads about 50% separated. Effects can be merged or separated depending on their place in the frequency spectrum - I usually separate my sweeps by about about 25-40%. TL;DR - Merge bass and vox, separate everything else in order of frequency.