Decibel(spelling) Levels...

[SessileNomad]

ok so i have seen ALOT of people say that kicks drums should pretty much always be set to -6DB

what i wanna know is, what are the DB lvls that most other sounds should be set too? just in general i guess? like lead synths, closed hats, open hats, snares, bassline, the common elements in most electronic songs

and i looked first to see if there was a thread that was similar to this and didnt find one, but if there is some obvious thread that relates to this, im sorry

thanks for any help

assuming this isnt a straight up retarded question :(

[Nav]

There are no correct levels. Use your ears and do what sounds best.

[Envy]

aside from not having set levels, it depends on the genre too. Handsup for instance always have big loud punchy kicks whereas trance has softer more booming kicks.

[DimTheoryX9-777]

At 3/23/09 05:11 PM, SessileNomad wrote: ok so i have seen ALOT of people say that kicks drums should pretty much always be set to -6DB

what i wanna know is, what are the DB lvls that most other sounds should be set too? just in general i guess? like lead synths, closed hats, open hats, snares, bassline, the common elements in most electronic songs

and i looked first to see if there was a thread that was similar to this and didnt find one, but if there is some obvious thread that relates to this, im sorry

thanks for any help

assuming this isnt a straight up retarded question :(

no this is a great question. you might be confusing what you have heard. A terrific skill is to keep the db meter at -6 at all times through production, then raise levels in the end. this gives your mix "room"

boost the levels later!

[DimTheoryX9-777]

At 3/23/09 05:51 PM, B0UNC3 wrote: Someone please tell me this guy isn't serious :O

I am quite serious. I await my terribly crappy smashup of every Audio god's style on the site to be approved.

then you will feel my wrath and respect my mixing advice

[DimTheoryX9-777]

At 3/23/09 06:13 PM, B0UNC3 wrote:

I might have taken the advice abit to literally though but I understood it as you said that EVERYTHING should be -6db

nah,

A big issue peopel face is they throw a limiter on the master track first thing then mix everything deeeeeeeep into the limiter. by the time the song is done, the entire mix is compressed to hell

keep the master db meter 6db below at all times during production, turn up your speakers. then, at the end, adjust everything to get the ideal mix. trying to compose and worry about mix just might cause you to lose motivation.

I'm saying give yourself a lot of room and don't worry about mixing so much, THEN worry about limiting, compression, etc.

or just do something completely different. the final product is what counts anyways :D

[Kazmo]

At 3/23/09 06:18 PM, DimTheoryX9-777 wrote:

At 3/23/09 06:13 PM, B0UNC3 wrote:

I might have taken the advice abit to literally though but I understood it as you said that EVERYTHING should be -6db

nah,

A big issue peopel face is they throw a limiter on the master track first thing then mix everything deeeeeeeep into the limiter. by the time the song is done, the entire mix is compressed to hell

keep the master db meter 6db below at all times during production, turn up your speakers. then, at the end, adjust everything to get the ideal mix. trying to compose and worry about mix just might cause you to lose motivation.

I'm saying give yourself a lot of room and don't worry about mixing so much, THEN worry about limiting, compression, etc.

or just do something completely different. the final product is what counts anyways :D

I personally think there's a difference between turning down the master, and turning down individual channels. By turning down the master, you aren't 'making room', you're just turning down the entire mix. By turning down the master you are only lowering the FINAL output levels, and not the input levels.

The key is to fine tweak the channel levels, and have a Master set at the default level at ALL TIMES.

Another thing, individual channels shouldn't be compressed if you have a compressor on the master. The other way around, you shouldn't have a compressor on the master if all or most of your channel have individual compressors.

Thanks for you time.

[DimTheoryX9-777]

At 3/23/09 06:33 PM, Kazm0 wrote: I personally think there's a difference between turning down the master, and turning down individual channels. By turning down the master, you aren't 'making room', you're just turning down the entire mix. By turning down the master you are only lowering the FINAL output levels, and not the input levels.

I am having a hell of a time explaining this. I mean the peaks of the master db meter should be at -6b or so.

the master volume slider should stay at 0 db

[Kazmo]

In the end, you shouldn't have any over-decibels/distortion. >_<

[Xenoscape]

At 3/23/09 05:11 PM, SessileNomad wrote: ok so i have seen ALOT of people say that kicks drums should pretty much always be set to -6DB

a lot of people will also tell you that FL Studio mix engine sounds warmer than Sonar's. We ignore those people.

[gregaaron89]

At 3/23/09 05:35 PM, Envy wrote: aside from not having set levels, it depends on the genre too. Handsup for instance always have big loud punchy kicks whereas trance has softer more booming kicks.

Adding to this: Also the balance of low and high frequencies varies a lot. Trance can have very punchy kicks with lots of bass, very little midrange and a big high end. But house can have kicks that sound very quiet on headphones, but booming loud in clubs because they're mostly subbass :D

[blackattackbitch]

Personally, I just go by what sounds best in my ears. You already know what genre I normally do (epic filmscore shit for those who don't), so normally I just go by what instrument should be louder. But in order to make this apply for all genres, I'll just go by this:

What instrument do you want to be your main melody? Whatever instrument it is should be the loudest one. The others should be a few decibels lower in volume than that instrument. For drums, just edit the volume until you feel that they're good. Don't go by some uniform standard such as -6db because it won't matter if the rest of your song is -12db or +5db.

And normally when I run into the problem of the whole mix being too high in volume, I do turn down the overall volume, at least until I get to the mastering part.

Mastering part is essential for me, because it allows me to clear up any discrepancies with the overall mix and the maximum volume that I want to achieve (0db). Usually, what I do at this stage is load up Maximus and adjust the gain knobs so that the amount I want compressed is the only thing getting compressed, and watching the peaks on the mixer's analyzer. It's okay if the peaks go up to +1db because that's only transients getting clipped for only a few milliseconds, barely audible even on the best headphones (I know I don't hear it haha).

And now you know.....
And knowing is half the battle!