dark ride: burning bridges [dryfat mix]

[dcp10200]

hi hörr blitzzz - thanks for your reply. i find nice that you want to help me - seriously. the problem is as always the volume. of course i work with gain staging and moderate compression on the buses. Only at the end i switch a limiter into the sum to intercept the points. but then the problem starts ... listen to my new mix, if you have time. i have of course tried to copy your mix, but that is not possible... your mix is in the reaper 1.2db over the zero (and i not cheating - please look the attachment)...
best wishes from germany,
dryfat

Hi Dryfat,

That's one problem with your mix, when you see red and see any positive level readings on the master it means the computer has run out of "numbers" to be able to intulectualize the audio. Basically digital audio cannot actually exist over 0 dBFs, otherwise the peaks of the audio get sliced off and result in the distortion as in the first mix. When setting the final output with the limiter, use the output (often this is called the "ceiling") of the limiter somewhere between -1.5 and -0.1 dB to ensure there aren't any peaks exceeding 0 dBFs.

The trick with limiting is that limiters are EXTREMELY fast compressors both on the attack and release, as soon as a peak exceeds the threshold of the limiter it gets smacked down so that it doesn't exceed the final level. In your newest mix the limiter is being triggered by the snare hits and is causing audible volume drops (this is known as "Pumping") and makes the mix disorienting to listen to. That also leads me to think that the snare is also too far up in the mix. The snare provided in the multis is quite transient heavy so using a compressor on it with a faster (4-15 ms) attack time and a 50-150 ms release would help you quell the attack of the snare transient and bring up it's sustain so that it'll be more easily heard in the mix without nuking the limiter.

With that I would also check the level of the rest of the drums, at least at this moment the snare is the most prominent element of the drums and makes them sound disjointed from each other. A good rule of thumb is to first take the kick and snare in solo and set them so that they peak out at the same level and work from there.

Overall your second mix is an improvement over the first and the elements that make up the mix are more apparent. From here it's about finding out where each element should go level wise, ask yourself "are the vocals too loud", "are the drums too quiet and not supporting the bass and guitars", "are the rhythm guitars too far panned and getting lost with the backup vocals that are in the same space". Once you find the answers to said questions, work with volume automation, eq, compression, panning, and most importantly, your ears to piece the mix together.

Cheers and hope this helps,
Dcp