Impostor wrote: ↑Mon Nov 07, 2022 7:30 pm
Thanks for your input. I was trying to get rid of the peaks in the mastertrack without audible consequences (to be able to amplify the track without clipping) so using a compressor or clipper seems out of the question. Hard-limiting (that's how it's called in Cool Edit) just decreases the amplitude of the highest peaks in a smooth manner to below the desired threshold, in contrast to clipping which just cuts the top off, and compressing which only seems to dampen the signal above a threshold.
Probably the need for this could be prevented by treating the individual channels of the mix with more care, using clippers and compressors there, but it may be a long time before I'm comfortable with using them.
Well I think it's important to understand the difference between 'soft clipping' and 'hard clipping'. What people generally mean when they say 'clipping' is hard clipping. Hard clipping is how clipping works in digital audio. It cuts the top of the waveform off in a very harsh way when it goes above 0db. Long story short; It sounds like crap, is bad practice and you're right to avoid it!
However, what I was suggesting is soft clipping. Soft clipping is the way clipping works in the analogue world. Soft clipping is not so harsh in the way it clips the waveform. It can actually give you a really nice sound if done in moderation! You don't need analogue gear to do it either; As I said, there are soft clip plugins and tape machine emulation plugins that have soft clip functionality. These plugins allow you to set the threshold at which soft clipping begins so you would set it a lot lower than 0db and benefit from soft clipping whilst not having your songs digitally/hard clipping. I always stick a limiter on the mixbus at the end of the chain whether or not I use soft clipping. I'm not suggesting to use soft clipping in place of a limiter but just something you can use before the limiter to make the limiter's job even easier which will result in a more transparent result.
Today's digital limiters are all 'hard limiters'. Basically, old, analogue limiters were essentially compressors with a really high compression ratio. This meant the signal could actually go above the set limit. Modern limiters are digital and so have something called 'lookahead' which basically means that they delay the signal to your ears (by milliseconds) so they can analylise the waveform and make adjustments to make sure it absolutely does not go above the limit you've set, whatever it takes.
Something else to understand about limiters (& compressors) is that when they adjust the volume, they distort the waveform. This distortion can be quite audible so don't assume that they're always going to sound transparent. They may even cause things to sound more distorted & less musical than a soft clipper would, for example.
You're totally right though. The best results come from lots of little things combined rather than one big trick. You don't necessarily need to process every single track with compressors & soft clippers etc though. I usually find it best to do compression on buses (Group tracks with multiple tracks running through them); For example, the drum bus which has every single drum sound running through it - I compress them all together.
EQ and compression are your main tools in mixing. Those are the things you really want to focus on getting good with. The rest is all dressing..
Compressors took me a while to get my head around. Essentially they're an automated volume control, turning the volume down when it goes too high and then turning it back up again as the volume drops. However, if you never explore them any further than that you will be missing out on so much! They can do some really cool things and alter the sound in ways you wouldn't have thought of. One of the main uses for them is to make drums more punchy by enhancing the transient, or more fat by reducing the transient. I think the best thing about them is their ability to enhance or even, create movement. You can do this by putting them on a bus. You'll be amazed at the life that suddenly comes out of things when you get it right!
I mentioned something similar in my last post but to learn how to use compressors you should really dig in with the threshold at first so there's lots of reduction happening and you can really hear what's going on while you adjust the controls. Once you've done that you can then back off to a more reasonable level. Here's a video that really helped me to get started with compressors years ago so I'm sure it could help someone else out too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91qs3fux5HY