In need of mixing and gain staging advice

[JamesJ]

I'm somewhat new to mixing in Logic and lately I've been watching my gain staging during mixdown in the interest of leaving proper headroom for the mastering process. I make electonic music and I'm trying to keep my levels in the -6db to -3db range but almost all of my projects have at least a few sounds that peak much higher, +6 or even clipping. I do want these sounds to be in the forefront of the mix so I naturally want them to be louder but I find myself running into the problem of it eating up my headroom and before I know it my mixes are peaking much higher than what I feel I should be leaving for mastering headroom. How do you tackle these sounds in a mix. Compress them to death? Turn everything down? Any mix advice or pointers are greatly appreciated.

[FUBAR]

Have a read: http://www.popmusic.dk/download/pdf/...ital-audio.pdf




My starting point is -18db and I aim for -6db/-3db on the master. You can always up the gain later on the master with compression or a finalizer plug.

Keep your levels down, learn to listen and mix in mono. You don't have to constantly mix in mono, just use it as a mix reference because if a mix sounds strong/clear in mono it's going to sound great in stereo. Also learn to listen to a mix at low levels because if it sounds good with the volume turned down then it is good.

If you start out loud you will end up clipping the master and that will ensure you kill your mix.

Good luck

[jaytranzmit]

If I can offer advice it would be to insert the Logic gain plugin first on your insert channel strip and reduce the level down using that than the fader before you start adding any further insert processing.

[UCTION]

Yes, turn everything down. -18dBFS is a good starting point. Your monitors have a volume knob/control for a reason, crank that mother up.

[stinkyfingers]

try using VU meter(s) instead of peak meter(s)...