02-07-2012, 08:04 AM
(30-06-2012, 02:12 AM)ThePhonk Wrote: Oh, by the way, Artbass, would you mind to elaborate a bit about the idea of "mixing with low volumes"? What exactly does that mean, what is it supposed to achieve, and how?
It has a lot to do with gain staging - which is quite a common concept but you have to remind yourself to keep checking (at least when it comes to me). I try to keep the gain of the individual channels low so that the masterbus sees peaks at around -12dbfs.
This seems to have two different effects: The first is that you hit individual processors with lower levels which may or may not effect the sound after processing. The second - and this is what is the more important effect to me - is more a psychological effect. In order to achieve these low levels on the masterbus you have to turn the outputs of the processors down. This seems to result in less and more controlled processing (when it comes to me) as you reduce the louder-is-better-problem and actually listen to the processing.
That friend of mine also claimed that such low levels would have benefits during mastering - but as I only mastered in the sense of increasing the level and adding a touch of compression (1-2 db of gain reduction maximum) I can not say anything about it.