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Old 05-16-2018, 06:47 AM   #13
Judders
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Join Date: Aug 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eliseat View Post
Yes, its makes no difference if you level the items down per normalizing or per item level. You can do both to get a rough low gain mix. But you shouldn't use normalization to maximize the peak to a 0db level because it really makes no sense to crank it up if you then have to level it even more down.

You just picked ONE argument out without reading the context. No, its not all about don't touching the sliders. Its about making your live easier and less complicated. Maybe you have time and fun moving every slider a hundred times but people who work a lot and know how it can end up try to avoid it by starting with a low gain mix. The minus 18dp thing is not a stupid rule from a bored nerd on youtube, its a rule many students world wide learn as a guide value.

And if you say there is no issue because you can still move the item value while mixing, that really makes no sense. Mixing should be the last step before mastering. If you level the media items just before the final mix everything gets crazy because the input levels of your FX also change. That's not mixing! That creates only a big mess. Just imagine input levels of compressors, amps or saturation plugins. No! Don't do that. Just start with a low gain mix, put it roughly together before the sliders and work from bottom to top, from tracks to buses to the master.

That's just my suggestion. Nobody has to follow it. But if not, I will spank your ...
If it works for you that's fine, but your arguments for it don't make sense. If you want all your audio to hit -18dB RMS, then peak normalisation will not do that for you. You should be using RMS normalisation for that.

Talking about upstream gain changes affecting downstream level-dependent processing is a red herring. The same is true for normalisation - if you normalise audio files upstream of level-dependent processing you will have the exact same problem.

I agree that good gain staging is worth doing, for meter and fader resolution mainly, but I don't get how peak normalisation helps in that regard. If, for example, my shaker now has the same peak level as my guitar solo, how has that saved me any time when it comes to mixing them?
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