You make a good presentation, simple and straight-forward. I was hoping you would talk a little about the horrible mistakes that you said you've made, just so that we can avoid the same pitfalls.
I always try to build underneath 0 decibels. Using mono and stereo to help create dynamics in a song. I slap on a limiter on the entire production to prevent clipping. Then I build underneath the 0 decibels. I create my own volume dynamics underneath the limiter. I use high and mid frequency to help build the loudness of a song. A powerful mono kick and snare. Basically build underneath the limiter. Create your own dynamics!!!
Thanks for the kind words, Federico! If you have any more questions, it would be great to have you in my Facebook group 'Music Production Explained', I'm active daily to answer your questions and I do a Q&A live stream every week which you can pre-submit questions for :) group: bit.ly/MPEgroup
Good point, Ian. Limiter misuse results in a lack of any dynamic range in your song. I said to aim for -10, if you go up higher (-5 for example), your song will all be pretty much the same volume throughout the entire track, and it will sound strange. A lack of dynamic range means songs don't have impact, they just stay at one level, it's bad practice to do so.
+The Audio Journey thanks a lot!! Great video by the way! One last question, I use a brickwall limiter and get around -10 (-5 if I misuse it), but still the volume is nowhere a professional sounding mix ... Any idea?
Is the -10 figure RMS, peak, or some other scale (e.g. LUFS)? There may be a frequency or balance issue in your mix. Often, mixes that don't have an aesthetically appropriate spectral balance (distribution of frequencies related to volume) can sound thin or quiet even if their overall levels are "within spec" as far as overall loudness. Additionally, there is such a thing as "too dynamic"... although the "loudness wars" fostered a culture of overusing/abusing limiters to the point of taking dynamics out of music, the opposite problem (in reaction to this) can also be true; if the peak-to-RMS/average ratio is too high, then the overall volume may still sound too quiet- for example, transients on certain drums may be coming very close to 0dBFS, but the rest of the instruments may be sitting far too quietly.
@@TheAudioJourney Limiters introduce distortion. This is why you can't blindly use them to push your signal to a certain level. Your track, for example (and imho), could use at least one more compression stage before throwing a limiter on... Use your ears, everybody!
Thank you for helping us beginners. Super insightful! How do record at the loudest point possible if you are just recording something easy like a piano tutorial --so you don't have to use a limiter. I find my recordings are annoyingly soft.
Dude you're the real MVP! Thankyou so much for such a simple explanation, most folks keep blabbing on and on-but you made it so easy to understand. Thankyouuuuu
I have been scratching my head over the loudness issue for years and never understood how to solve that prblem without ruining my songs completely. So, up to now, I've always mixed my songs down, so they never clipped. Until I saw your video and sudenly it all made sense. The Limiter works as a compressor in the sense that it sets a barrier at 0.0dB and allows you to increase the dynamic of the sound until it reaches that limit. Thanks a lot for a clear straightforward explanation.
In this example, you used a Level meter to guide you to your desired volume - 10Db I think you wanted - so if you have a limiter to determine your threshold and you have the meter to confirm your actual volume, then what would the mix channel volume slider be used for?
The use of limiters and compressors always seem to be described as being used in post production after you have a recording. Is there a way of using them in Audition when recording. I am often recording my self either singing or doing narration and when I am concentrating on the song or dialogue I can't also be watching my audio levels and riding the sliders to prevent peaking so ideally I would like to set all the compressors and hard limiters that I will have in place BEFORE I record so that I can just concentrate on the performance and not have to watch the recording. Is something like that possible? When I add the multiband compressor and hard limiter effect to the effects rack there does not seem to be any effect on the actual recorded wave form.
so with more expensive plugins like fab filter can you pretty much get your song to professional audio volume or can any stock plugin do that if you know what youre doing?
Hi John. I just finished a song, and I have used and understand on what to use a limiter for. I aimed to -12 RMS level, and it sounded great. I only used a stock plugin from Logic Pro X, and used the adaptive limiter to set the ceiling to -0.1 dB, which is a strict policy that cannot make the peaks louder than the border. The problem is, even those peaks can show me that I'm clipping above 0 dB. What happened, and how to fix it? Thanks, Ivan.
I don't use LP but have also experienced this in FCP. Look for a setting called True Peak Detection and set it ON. This might help. I think I remember that these 'on-the-fly' limiters don't always show they're limiting exactly to the threshold level (as you mentioned). For this reason I'm torn between using them and just lowering the threshold bit until I see the levels aren't clipping (assuming the level indicator is correct), or leaving them be (assuming the level indicator is incorrect but the limiter is doing what it's supposed to), or just limiting using Audacity outside the recording software which does exactly what it says it will do (because it is transformed before playback, not on-the-fly). But it's a pain doing it offline & re-importing. I wish I could rely on the in-software limiter to work without doubts. A bit frustrating.
Hi, Ian. I've been using a limiter during mixdown (last plugin.) Should I mixdown with out it and then drag the finished mix file back into my DAW, then add the limiter, like you did? Very confused about this. Thanks.
Im with you on that one..what is the difference to the finished track if you bounce down the whole mix to a single track as in the video and then add mastering stuff versus when you add all that mastering stuff on the stereo out in the original ?
i have a question. before masterng or putting a limiter to a final track, it should be on wave file? or you can add it directly without converting to wav?
Everyone else mentioned the process of adding the limiter to the master output, which is a valid approach, but it leads to a workflow problem- Mixing and mastering should (ideally) be two separate processes. While applying a compressor/limiter to the master output can be a helpful way to have the initial mix be at "commercially-loud" levels/dynamics, it can muddy the waters in the mix process. The reason most people will export the mix without master-output effects (like limiting) is because a mastering engineer has a different goal in mind than a mix engineer. A mix engineer's job is to get the overall mix sounding appropriate as far as the levels and timbres of instruments in relation to each other, but not necessarily effects on the entire track. This is especially important when mastering one of several tracks that will appear on an album, because if there is radically different treatment from one song's master output to the next, then the album can sound inconsistent, even disjointed form song-to-song.
Hi! I have 2 questions (that you'll prob think are dumb lol - but please reply if you can) ;) 1. What's the difference with selecting a clip in logic and increasing the gain via the inspector's gain control, and applying a stereo limiter to the selection/s (right-clicking on the selection/s and opening the selection-based processing window and applying a stereo limiter)? I mean in both cases the track/c sound louder, so why not just up the gain directly via the inspector, and "bam" you have a louder track that you can export.. 2. Does the master volume slider on the top right of logic (which is the same master slider in the mixer) affect the exported audio file's loudness and quality, or is its level "ignored" during a track's exporting (and therefore is only there so we can hear what we're doing louder or less loud while working on a project, but it does not affect the exported track at all)?
Great and to-the-point video. However, you didn't explain what the max point we should be increasing our gain, to get the best result, is. That's the whole point, isn't it? I just want to use the LPX's Adaptive Limiter since it's already included with LPX (I guess that what I'm asking stands for ALL limiters). So, say we set the "Out Ceiling", as LPX's Adaptive Limiter calls the Output, to -2dB (I've understood that that's a "given" value). My question is: if/since no matter how high we turn the gain up, the limiter won't let distortion come through by compressing the sound; doesn't that mean that in order to get the loudest possible output with no distortion (which is the whole idea), we should just raise the gain as far as it'll go, and then the limiter will do the rest?... If not, how do we know WHAT LEVEL we should raise the gain level to, to get the maximum volume output that we can (without ruining the sound quality)? I mean, is there some kind of "rule of thumb" by which we can just assume that we should stop increasing the gain when the compression level we see on the LPX-included "Adaptive Limiter", should "not exceed", say, -6dB (or whatever value you think)? Or is there no such "rule"/"guide" that we can just follow? And, also, can you please explain whether the master volume slider on LPX (top right above the project window) is taken "into account" when exporting a track? Or is this slider only to for US to hear louder/lower during playback - like a "monitor" so to say, but its level is actually irrelevant to how a track will be exported? Thanks!!
Hey, thanks for the question! I totally understand your question regarding turning up the gain as much as possible - the thing is you will definitely ruin the sound quality if you turn up the gain too much because you will remove the dynamics from your track. Roughly speaking, dynamics is the difference between the quietest sound in your track and the loudest sound. Having good dynamic range can give great impact, for instance when you listen to dance tracks that have a great minimal, quiet break down and then builds back up to a loud drop, the loud drop has more impact than if the track was just loud all the way through. At a certain point when you’re turning up the gain, things will start to sound very unnatural, so what you can use as a reference is essentially ‘average’ loudnesses. I’d recommend checking out the short mastering section of this free online course I put together: bit.ly/jhfmpcourse
@@TheAudioJourney thanks!! Will definitely check the tutorial out! :) But, generally speaking, there is no "rule" by which we can just assume that we should stop increasing the gain when the reduction level we see on the "Adaptive Limiter" is, say, -6dB? (This way we can just simply take for granted that when SEE the reduction level reached 6dB (for example), that is the max we should be increasing the gain?
using a limiter can cause the problem of quiet sections, particularly intros and fade-ins getting boosted too much, also thay can cause noise and hiss, any tips on how to avoid this?
What??? you could have explained what happens when those red marks appear above, maybe I want them or maybe I don't, what does it mean when they appear, I mean I still have questions, I can open up the limiter and turn that thing up, but I wanna know how far can I take it, I've seen other limiters that lets you set a ceiling level, where is that... I am a beginner but... not that naive :/
Hi. Great video. I'm pretty fluent in Logic and mastering but this was an additional "boost" to my abilities (pun intended!). However, when I open the built in level meter on Logic and then apply gain to the Limiter, while it certainly SOUNDS louder and fuller, the RMS does not change at all. For example, I'm using a simple track this is only guitar and before applying the limiter, the RMS is showing at approx. - 17. When I applied gain to the built in limiter of 4.5 dB, it sounds louder, but the limiter still shows the RMS at approx. -17. Thoughts? Thanks.
I also use the Logic Pro Adaptive Limiter and have the same problem....sounds louder when I boost the gain, but I can't ever seem to get close to -10 on the Loudness Meter without having the colored line in the Stereo Out channel strip showing red....can't seem to get above -14 RMS, and when I bounce to an mp3 in iTunes, the sound is noticeably quieter than the commercial iTune mp3's. Any suggestions?
Are you applying the limiter OR the level meter to your master track? Asking because you can be messing around with a limiter on the master track but then if you pull RMS from a separate track, it won't show a change. You could export the whole project as an mp3 and then analyze the RMS on that to see the real impact of the limiter.
"Limiters are used at the stage of mastering..." I'm sorry but don't teach future Grammy - winning producers wrong stuff. Limiters are used in mixing ALL THE TIME... as in... a hell of a lot.
yeah, it's sort of an easy topic... but before I'm going to use limiters, I wanted to make sure that I understood everything well. So this video helped. Now I'm going to use them and avoid clipping.
Very good well thought out tutorial. However I work as a documentary maker and forever sending music back as they always have music peaking at 0. I now request music at -12db because it far easier to turn up than down and as I have to output around -6db
Can you use a limiter to make sure your track doesn’t hit above 0db so it it better once rendered for the master. Also can you use limiters on separate channels on the mixing process, so the peaks don’t hit high??
Hi! Nice tutorial, thanks for that! I have heard people use the term ceiling, and I know what it is in theory. But can you explain what it does? A reply is also sufficient :)
If i use my launchpad with a cover, ableton says that the ‘limiter’ can’t be used and so my launchpad doesn’t make any sound. It gets me really frustrated and i just can’t make that my launchpad makes sounds. How do i control this? I just don’t understand.
The issue here is that you are trying to open a project file that was created in Ableton Live Suite when you are using Ableton Live Lite. There is a fix to this. Go to intro.novationmusic.com/learn/launchpad/index.html - this will help you play lightshows with Live Lite
