Jamie Kent - All American Mutt - Take 3

[Mixinthecloud]

Hey man. Only listened to Clarified version. Great mix, very easy on the ear. Nothing jumped out at me saying "fix me, fix me" which tells me when a mix is done......good job!

Do you set your final master level using K14 meter? Cos your mix is hitting my meter EXACTLY where I set my levels

Yes. K14. I've been getting better at matching limiting to the song in order to maximize levels and keep clarity through the piece while enhancing the groove and the rhythm. In combo with all of the sub groups I maintain and their attendant dynamics, eq and effects and a well placed buss compressor, I've recently been getting pretty good levels which read well from loud to soft playback level. My DAW has a dedicated mastering section which I will use to sculpt the tonal balance. I mostly use a mid-side, phase coherent graphic equalizer and sometimes a parametric for broader emphasis followed by a final limiter to finalize gain. I try to maintain anywhere between an 11 and 18 db dynamic range (between absolute peaks and RMS levels). I think my peaks on this were -0.4. It was easy to get deep in this song because you could get some really good sounds and create really cool spaces from clues you decide to follow. That leads to a fun road of discovery. Knowing when to stop is, well, hard to get sometimes. Right? I did take one more crack at this last night and might load it up, but I'm not convinced it is better than the clarified mutter. Read on and thanks for the question and comments.