EQ Magazine - February 2008 - (Page 65) CONTINUED FROM PAGE 62 to reduce the signal level going to your plugs. Do this before setting up a compressor or gate, because trim affects their gain reduction. But doesn’t a low recording level increase noise?Yes—but in practice, it’s not a problem. A 24-bit recording has a theoretical signal-to-noise ratio of 144dB. So even if you record at -6dB, you’re still far above the noise floor, and you won’t hear any increase in hiss. KEEP REDUCING Here are some other spots in the signal path you can set your level to a maximum of –6dB: Stems. At the output of each plug-in, check for clipping—especially in an equalizer set to boost. Find the plug’s output gain control, and turn it down until clipping stops. You might have several plugs in series, and you don’t want the output of one plug to overload the input of another. Upsampling plug-in outputs. These DSP processes upsample the signal (increase its sample rate), do the effect, and then downsample the signal at the output. The downsampler acts like a partial reconstruction filter. So even with the effect turned off, the up and down sampling can create overs. Mixdown master. Set the maximum peak level of the master output bus to –3dB to –6dB to allow for signal peaks that do not display on sample-reading meters. You can make up the gain later during mastering, where you boost the overall level or peak-limit/normalize to make a hot CD.Try to keep the master faders at or near 0dB. If the master faders are set low, you will turn up the channel faders to get a good mix level, which results in highlevel signals that can overload the mix bus. [Note: Mix bus overload is not a serious problem if the DAW uses 48-bit or 64-bit floating-point math in the mix bus, because float processing can pass signals above 0dB without clipping. Still, it’s good practice to control the levels hitting the mix bus. Summing calculations become less accurate when signals exceed full scale.] Compressor makeup gain. Don’t do it! Makeup gain can cause the initial uncompressed transient to clip by boosting its level. Raise the track fader instead. A TIP FOR MASTERING If your mix is going to a mastering engineer, omit any stereo-bus processing. Record the file at a maximum of –6dB to –3dB so that the mix doesn’t overload the mastering engineer’s D/A converter. If you are mastering your own mixes, use an oversampling meter that displays the actual reconstructed signal, or set the limiter ceiling at –3dB to –0.3dB—not 0dB or higher. This avoids making files that sound distorted on listeners’ playback systems, as many CD players distort with samples above the clip level. http://primacoustic.com http://primacoustic.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.