Headroom and Gain Structure [Advanced Topic]

[petermennitirecords]

You can stack frequencies, or else the music would sound HORRIBLE.

This.
I'm getting tired of hearing that you can't stack frequencies, of course you can. As long as you don't overdo it so that it clips.

Ya, exactly. In my mind, I distinguish between overlapping frequencies and having two elements at the same frequency. Having two things that take up the same space isn't too great, but overlap is necessary. If everything has no overlap, it sounds mechanical and sharp in the bad way, not the "oh it's a creative tool" way.

Super Alex pretty much said it - some overlapping frequencies are essential of course so that your tunes don't sound weird. But it's also gonna sound really bad if you've got everything peaking at about the same spot - like (for example) a midrange bass patch loudest at about 800 Hz, some low horns loudest at about 800 Hz, and a midrange pad loudest at 800 Hz as the three main elements in your track. First of all it'll sound empty because you'll have nothing in the high end; second of all you won't be able to get it very loud because you'll be struggling to control the giant spike at around 800 Hz. If you moved the horns up an octave or so and the pad up high to around 3 or 4k, you'd get a much better sounding mix because your sounds would be spread out across the frequency spectrum. Good arranging is key to a good mix and saving headroom, and of course EQ helps a ton.

[alexc]

what would we be without you man

I dread to think....

[Kamihamiha]

Generally as a starting point I make sure my kick hits in peaking at around -10dB and use that as the base for the rest of the track. Once my kick is sitting there with EQ/compression etc making it sound hard hitting and punchy, I don't touch that fader at all. From here, I mix my drums around it, then subs, then basses (I low cut my basses and use 1 dedicated sub track to ensure I know what's going on in the subs at all times) then leads and anything else. Generally doing this, I can have the master peaking at around -3dB which leaves plenty of headroom for multi-band tinkering later. If I can't hear the kick, I know something's too loud.

[Rmonik]

I neeeever look at how much db it peaks. except for the mastering.

[MnilinM]

As long as I'm not clipping I don't bother... Of course I SHOULD, i just haven't before.
I think i'm going to start applying this.

[Super Alex]

If there's one serious, undeniable, inexcusable problem with Reason, it's that the mixer has a 0-127 scale, not dB.

[Rmonik]

Why is it a problem? Seriously guys, if you wanna have good mixes, do NOT look at the decibel meters. Listen. Listen if it sounds right. Decibel monitoring is just good when you're mastering. And mastering in reason is a bad idea anyway.

[alexc]

Why is it a problem? Seriously guys, if you wanna have good mixes, do NOT look at the decibel meters. Listen. Listen if it sounds right. Decibel monitoring is just good when you're mastering. And mastering in reason is a bad idea anyway.

Not true, I find it hard to judge how loud my sub bass is because I don't have a sub-woofer.
Hi-hats and higher frequencies can be difficult to get right too, a lot of people make the mistake of making a high-hat too loud because they are easily audible at lower volumes.

[Rmonik]

sub bass, okay, that hard to do without a sub. But high hats. And yeah, you told me to turn down my hats once, but really, i think loud hats are awesome. It might not be noticeable at home, but it BANGS in a club in combination with a big sub.

[alexc]

sub bass, okay, that hard to do without a sub. But high hats. And yeah, you told me to turn down my hats once, but really, i think loud hats are awesome. It might not be noticeable at home, but it BANGS in a club in combination with a big sub.

Alright, if you say so Skrillexmonik.