Ableton Forum

Anyone got any tips for this (other than "turn stuff down")?

I'm really struggling on the track I'm working on at, it's not overly heavy sound-wise or anything, but the damn thing starts to clip as soon as I add my bassline (big pumping compressor thing).

I'm dropping below ~150hz depending on instrument, often a lot higher, and generally making space for everything both pan- and eq-wise, and the mix doesn't sound bad at all, it's just clipping, which is arse.

limiter on the bass track?

Well, I hate to say it, but if everything is so loud that you're clipping the master but it ounds fine otherwise, you just need to turn everything down. Not sure why that's such a problem though.

tempus3r wrote:limiter on the bass track?

Not an issue, no single track is going over 0db on its own, and I can mess with the sliders if needs be. Problem is, if I turn the bass down, it's too quiet

Tarekith wrote:Well, I hate to say it, but if everything is so loud that you're clipping the master but it ounds fine otherwise, you just need to turn everything down. Not sure why that's such a problem though.

Fair enough, I seem to get the levels "right" to my ears but always clip at the moment. it's a bugger to turn everything down cus I've got a bit of volume automation going on: did this with a limiter on at first (by accident) so I didn't realise it was clipping until earlier!

Well... opposed to the "less/no compression" position that is widespread here, I suggest to figure out what can be done with a limiter/compressor anyway. If the sound is really ok, the transients still seem to be there, then there must have been some transient spikes that are not necessary.

But before you do any dynamic processing on the master, try shifting the notes a tiny bit. Sometimes you solve problems like this by removing transient clashes - it might even sound better... less "mechanical".

Are you sure you really tried solving the problem with EQing properly?

Try the "Utility" audio effect on the master and just lower the gain.
Or (maybe even better) use the utillity effect (with a gain that is low enough) and copy the effect to all tracks.
This way you're also avoiding problems with headroom.

Tarekith wrote:Well, I hate to say it, but if everything is so loud that you're clipping the master but it ounds fine otherwise, you just need to turn everything down. Not sure why that's such a problem though.

I can't find that great article on keeping your levels down. great reading.

the answer is to turn down your tracks. many users have asked for a way to have Live default the level of new tracks to -12dB or -6dB or whatever, but NOT have them come up as 0dB for exactly this reason.

go ahead and bring the master fader down.
Don't be afraid, it won't hurt anything.


.lm.

Ed J wrote:

tempus3r wrote:limiter on the bass track?

Not an issue, no single track is going over 0db on its own, and I can mess with the sliders if needs be. Problem is, if I turn the bass down, it's too quiet

So? The level on the master is accumulative. Either you have to turn things down, or turn the master down. If your mix sounds perfect and only the bass is driving it over 0db you either turn the master down or try a limiter on the offending track.

As was pointed out, especially in live 8, you can just select all tracks and turn them all down a little at once. done.

tempus3r wrote: As was pointed out, especially in live 8, you can just select all tracks and turn them all down a little at once. done.

not if he has a bunch of volume automation in the arrangement.


.lm.

Just whack a Utility set to -X dB on all the tracks...

leisuremuffin wrote:

tempus3r wrote: As was pointed out, especially in live 8, you can just select all tracks and turn them all down a little at once. done.

not if he has a bunch of volume automation in the arrangement.


.lm.

Hence the suggestion to use Utility instead of the actual track volumes either for your automation (which you can paste to utility) or to actually turn the tracks down relative to the track volumes.

leisuremuffin wrote:

tempus3r wrote: As was pointed out, especially in live 8, you can just select all tracks and turn them all down a little at once. done.

not if he has a bunch of volume automation in the arrangement.


.lm.

yeah, and map them all to one knob.

Limiter.

yes

Set your Maximizer limiter max out to -0.1 or lower and bring up the threshold level a bunch.

Then you have leeway with the threshold to sdjust volume and headroom together while protecting the out level.

If you use a straight limiter it's gonna be way more difficult to fuss with a session wide fader group.