Hey guys,

I`m mixing a rock song at the moment and I`m trying to get the final mix to the hottest possible signal! Its going to be broadcast on a few radio stations so i need it to be loud! I`m mixing it in Cubase SX and although the clipping light/indicator doesn`t come on at all during the song, the VU meter is going way yellow and above 0db, it doesnt go red though! Is this clipping or bad or what? Should this be happening or should everything be below 0db and green? I`m using a compressor on the final mix set to 3:1!

ummm you should get it mastered to be that loud, not mix it to be that loud
or am I reading your post incorrectly?

This is what I hate about recording on computers. There is a natural tendency to make the song look right as oppose to sound right.

Forget the meters. Close your eyes and listen. Does it sound distorted? If so, turn it down.

skatingbasser wrote:This is what I hate about recording on computers. There is a natural tendency to make the song look right as oppose to sound right.

Forget the meters. Close your eyes and listen. Does it sound distorted? If so, turn it down.

What he said. We always throw a towel over the monitor when listening to mixes, otherwise everyone is watching for fader animations or regions or whatever and not just listening to how the song sounds.

Well, Im only doin 3 songs and they are kinda demo versions, vox done with SM58`s, acoustics DI`d, bass DI`d etc. so I don`t really wanna pay for mastering! So...ur saying there`s nothing REALLY wrong with this meter reading and I should trust my ears? It doesn`t sound distorted but then again, a mastering engineer might say it definetley is!

nah, master it yourself after you mixdown.

For example there is a effect in soundforge (I think you can download a demo version of it) called wavehammer that makes it really easy to get stuff loud.

I usually use the compressor first, and then use the wavehammer very lightly as kind of a safety net just incase it would peak otherwise, although you could just use the wavehammer thing if you are not comfortable using compressors. Wouldn't sound as good, but you can get it pretty loud without much effort.

or you could just mix it down and then import the file back into whatever program you use and then master it there.

Rightio! I`ll give it a go! Thanks everyone for your help!

h8 m0dems wrote:or you could just mix it down and then import the file back into whatever program you use and then master it there.

When I do things like this, I will mix it with some headroom to play with knowing I can 'make it louder' when I 'master'..... leave as much of the dynamics intact... then when you 'master' it you can compress and/or limit as little or a much as you wish depending on what you are going for and what you are hearing.

for what it's worth, if it's going on the radio, the jock is most likely going to make the signal as hot as he/she can, then it'll run through the station's brickwall limiter, if not a series of them. Let them squash your songs.