Limiting Leads & individual sounds

[frankiemoriello]

Hello together,

i would like to ask a question about limiting individual sounds. Everyone is talking about raising the gain on the master chain, but i feel that unwanted peaks of all individual tracks lead into faster clipping and lower loudness in generall. >> Because of all the individual peaks.

Can anybody please explain to me how i can limit my sounds, especially leads with subtle limiting techniques. Im not talking about compression limiting techniques, but just with a simple overdrive (like john christian is doing it) or with a stock limiter of a daw. Im using Ableton btw.

How is it correctly done! --> Raising the gain of the limiter until it starts to clipp and afterwards mix it in with the normals volume control??

Appreciate any help and suggestions

[lfm]

If limiter has automatic makeup gain - you usually just lower threshold until it limits.

If not having auto makeup gain - be careful not to cause internal clippings inside limiter by just raising gain - also lower threshold, which basically decrease gain in that stage.

Personally I consider mild compression better to just get rid of some peaks that puts mix out of balance meterwise. Ratio 2-4. Adjusting attacktime to let enough signal through so you don't hear a difference.

[camsr]

If limiter has automatic makeup gain - you usually just lower threshold until it limits.

If not having auto makeup gain - be careful not to cause internal clippings inside limiter by just raising gain - also lower threshold, which basically decrease gain in that stage.

Personally I consider mild compression better to just get rid of some peaks that puts mix out of balance meterwise. Ratio 2-4. Adjusting attacktime to let enough signal through so you don't hear a difference.

Yes I agree compressor makes the "right" signal usually to drive a clipper and/or limiter. Going too far this way makes it very loud, often to the detriment of dynamics and possibly tone. A fast limiter after a fast compressor may be the worst thing one can do to a dynamic audio track.

[Paschalis I.]

Hello together,

i would like to ask a question about limiting individual sounds. Everyone is talking about raising the gain on the master chain, but i feel that unwanted peaks of all individual tracks lead into faster clipping and lower loudness in generall. >> Because of all the individual peaks.

Can anybody please explain to me how i can limit my sounds, especially leads with subtle limiting techniques. Im not talking about compression limiting techniques, but just with a simple overdrive (like john christian is doing it) or with a stock limiter of a daw. Im using Ableton btw.

How is it correctly done! --> Raising the gain of the limiter until it starts to clipp and afterwards mix it in with the normals volume control??

Appreciate any help and suggestions

The L1 from Waves has a knob that links both the Gain Reduction and Volume,
so you can just limit without altering the volume (fantastic).

[TIMT]

Edit:Nevermind..

[do_androids_dream]

If you start getting finicky about individual peaks on individual tracks you are quickly going to get a flatlined, lifeless mix. As a mastering engineer I get to hear hundreds of tracks a year by electronic artists of all genres. I can tell you that the best masters come from the most dynamic mixes. Don't worry about peaks - just worry about writing a great track.

[frankiemoriello]

Thank you all for your help and your tipps! Usually i aim for subtle compression, i was just looking for an alternative to compare the results. > Limiting with Comps or Limiters self.

thank you!

[simon.a.billington]

The L1 is a definately a nice piece of software...

Yeah, just had a look for you. It is currently on sale in the Silver bundle.
http://www.waves.com/bundles/silver

While you're there you may as well check out the other limiters as well. For the most part they are really nice and super effective.

One way to view limiting is that if you had a track that was relatively evenly balanced from the lows to the highs and viewed on a spectrogram it should have a gentle slope of -3dB per octave. Similar to pink noise.

So, that being said, the bass frequencies are going to be the highest in amplitude and therefore, will be your first trouble spot. If you are going to clip that's quite possible where it will start.

What I will often do is begin a mix with a limiter on the master, set it to something like -3 to -6dbFS and then raise the kick and bass until the limiter is just being triggered. You could also do this just by watching the meter, but a limiter will perform a little gentle shaping as well if done properly.

The next step will be to fill out the rest of a static mix by raising the other sliders, making sure they sit in with the kick and bass, because that is your reference point.

Once finished the mix may have gained a bit in volume, but just pull it all back until the limiter is barely being triggered again.

As you work on the mix, try to keep your pre and post effects volumes relatively consistent, or in other words, at unity gain and keep adjusting the mix if it starts getting too loud.

Keep refining your limiter settings as you go, and bypass it often to compare it to the music without it. There shouldn't be too much of a difference unless you decided to drive the limiter a bit harder, which can also be a valid approach.

Just be careful not to over limit.

Oh yeah, the extra 3-6dB on top is for the mastering engineer.

[padillac]

Personally I consider mild compression better to just get rid of some peaks that puts mix out of balance meterwise. Ratio 2-4. Adjusting attacktime to let enough signal through so you don't hear a difference.

I have never gotten the hang of this. Any time I let signal go through the attack, it results in a higher peak after makeup gain. Which makes sense to me... it just doesn't make sense to me how other people always suggest reducing peaks with a compressor.

Unless you're talking about signals that already have a smooth attack, rather than transients? (I realize we're talking leads here). Because for transients, if I want to reduce peaks, I need the fastest compressor attack I can get.

Am I doing something wrong?