Say your loudest point is at -6dB, while your quietest moments are around -18dB. Going from quiet to loud increases energy, and makes music more impactful.ĭynamic range is the difference between your loudness peaks and troughs.
A lot of emotion, and forward movement in music, is dictated by the level of dynamic range. These decisions very much depend on genre and intended output.Ī jazz track will be mixed and mastered quieter than a hard dubstep track would.ĭynamic range is a very important consideration when mixing and mastering. Mix engineers like Steve Albini have long been intentionally squashing their dynamic range with limiters, to create louder and punchier mixes. That being said, limiting isn’t actually a bad thing in some cases. If your track mix is really hot (really loud), putting a limiter on the tail end of it, will leave a lot of unwanted clipping and digital distortion artefacts.Īdd to that a very compressed dynamic range, and your songs will start to sound like a mush of sounds, rather than a fully realized mix and master. Clarity is the sole reason we do any levelling, panning, stereo adjustments, compression etc.īy putting a limiter on your master bus, you’re essentially reducing the dynamic range of your mix. Mixing is about clarity and balance across the board. Mixing, contrary to popular opinion, isn’t about extracting as much loudness as you can from your track. Overusing limiters however, will reduce your dynamic range, while introducing clipping and other digital sound artefacts in your track. It’s attractive, it’s easy, you can mix how loud you want, and turn it down to proper levels with a limiter. One of the first things you’ll learn as a mixing engineer is, don’t cheat with a limiter on your master bus.
That’s the quick answer, but as usual, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. If you want to send your mix off to get mastered, you should aim for around -6dB Peak, and anywhere from -23 dBFS RMS or LUFS to -18 dBFS RMS or LUFS average. How Loud Should My Track Be Before Mastering?
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