My 2-Cent

[Artbass]

A couple of things still puzzle me. First and foremost, an increase in processing intensity does not automatically cause an increase in level. For example, low-cutting a track tends to reduce level rather than increase it. Even compression does not increase level per se. Therefore, limiting levels does not always force one to "turn down" anything, let alone keep one from overdoing the processing. Or am I missing the point...?

Do you remember any practical example of how this rule has affected your mixing decisions, like which processor you did or didn't use in which configuration (insert / send) on which instrument, or how you dialed it back in order to keep levels low? Or, asked differently, how do you believe would your mixes have sounded differently had you not applied this rule?

Marc

A lot of processors do indeed reduce levels. Maybe even most of them, if you don't turn them up. The problem is that I (and I only can speek of myself when it comes to that) tend to reach for a processor to give the source I am processing a better audibility within the mix. Reducing the level during processing results in less audibility which in turn results in me turning up the channel or processor. The best example that comes to my mind is a kick. I always struggle to bring it upfront where I think it should be. Usually I EQ it (cutting the mids) and after that the nightmare begins. I tend to turn it up by compressing life out of it and adding gain.

Setting myself a (quite low) limit for peaks now changes this behaviour. In order to bring the kick to the front I have to work differently. Instead of compressing it to death (with an "I can't hear it, turn it up!"-mentality) I have to work on the other tracks.

Now that may not seem like big news. I've read about that more than once but adding this to the way you work sometimes needs a little detour. So maybe I was not quite right when I said that it has to do with processing directly. But thank you for asking. Reflecting what you are doing is not really straight forward sometimes

Anyway, due to renovations in the flat next door I have to wait until I can work again. They drilled twice through the wall until now...