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Old 12-29-2008, 08:09 PM   #105
yep
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Join Date: Aug 2006
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Quote:
"Level-matching" does NOT mean making it so that everything hits the peak meters at the same level."

That's what the red lights on analog meters are for. I get the advice of, don't overdrive an input, and analog was more forgiving, within limits. But what are you really saying to do with this information? How and when do we do the balancing act? Some combination of gaining up the dry-ish strat and/or dialing down the overdriven Les Paul, yes? Limit and compress the high peak-to-average channels, like the dry strat? If so, when? When capturing the performance? At mixdown? Somewhere in between? Dial down the low peak-to-average channels, such as the overdriven Les Paul? Again, at what stage? Which brings us to...
NononononoNO.

This "level-matching" that I'm talking about has nothing to do with any console or DAW meters, analog or digital, clip, peak or RMS. It is totally about the volume of sound in open air at the listening position. Neither REAPER nor any other DAW or mixing console has any meter for this, and they could not. I am talking about the actual perceived volume level after the sound has left the speakers. I'm talking about the sound pressure changes in your ear canal, not in the recording system.

When you have that band in a room with the clean Strat and the dirt Les Paul that I described above, the Strat player is turning up his amp and the Les Paul is turning up his amp until they both sound about right compared to he drum kit and everything else. Nobody is looking at meters or thinking about peak level or clip lights or any of it. And NOBODY is compressing or limiting the sound to make it fit with preconceived notions of what the recording meters are supposed to look like. That is the OPPOSITE of where good sound comes from. Real musicians play at varying volume levels and have sounds and instruments that are dynamic and exciting and that do not fit into a preconceived 12dB window, and nor should they.

So how do you mix this record? Easy. TURN THE LES PAUL DOWN. There is NOTHING wrong with starting out with the Les Paul peaking at -15dB. FORGET THE METERS. If it sounds too quiet, turn up the volume on your SPEAKERS. HEADROOM IS YOUR FRIEND. It is what makes the Strat sound punchy and dynamic.

I haven't even begun to talk about compression, and nobody who is unclear on any of this should be TOUCHING a compressor yet. Start your mix like a band in a room. If it's a rock combo, the loudest fixed-volume instrument is drums. So pull up those faders first, and set the drums so they they are peaking at say -6. Now turn up the guitars NOT according to the meters, but according to the SOUND relative to the drums and to each other. TURN UP YOUR MONITORS if you need more volume. Really. It's EASY. DO NOT OVER-THINK THIS. Just do it.

Compression comes AFTER. And it is a huge topic. But for now, just record good signal, and then mix it to taste. Just mix it. They are sounds. Mix them together. If one instrument is too loud, turn it down. If another is too quiet, turn it up. If the signal is clipping, pull back your faders, and start over WITH YOUR SPEAKERS TURNED UP LOUDER.

Erase the parts of your brain that think of compression and limiting as a way of making things louder. Now re-write those parts of your brain to think of compression as a way of making things QUIETER, because that's what it does. When it comes to compression, start loud, and then see how much quieter you can make it before it sounds bad. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Compression does not make anything louder, it makes things quieter.

If the above does not make perfect sense, then just leave compression alone for now. If your records sound quiet, turn up your volume knob.

This thread could go for 100 pages and years, and there is a lot more to come. As I said earlier, there is a lot of back-and-forth to this stuff. Gain-staging is a big topic that we've barely touched on. Compression is a HUGE topic that affects everything, but all in good time.
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