VU Meter/ PSP Vintage Warmer/ Loudness metering

[ckluxen2]

hi,

so I`m getting into next level, my mixes sound better, the sounds have more dynamic, but my loudness at all isn`t enough.
I`m reading bob katz audio mastering book (in german) at the moment as I`m searching a way to get it right.

VU-Meters seems to be good to check the loudness of the mix, except that low frequencies are displayed equal as upper freq.
Is it really useable?

I still don`t understand the brickwall limiter and the floating point thing, any help or tutorials would be great.
My plans are upward and downwards or parallel compression at individual groups to get the mix right.

I`ve got voxengos span with all the k-systems, which I really don`t understand so far, but there`s no free vu-meter, the one from psp just runs at mac ppc.
So I think I get the psp vintage warmer pack, is it good? What about the L2 Ultramaximizer? Is there any free and good vu-meter?

Many, many questions for a single post I know, but I have to start somewhere.
thanks a lot.

just my german english

[0fps]

Many plug-ins have RMS mode, which is more relevant to the way that our ears receive and feel loudness and dB. VU meters (in analogue desks) have a kind of latency (arround 30ms I think) and are not good for leveling. So that's why when u tune a limiter u should use ppm instead of rms.

Brickwall limiter is a very strict and "hard" limiter. Used to ensure that u have your signal exactly at the threshold u set. Floating point is a way that bit analysis is provided to a processor. As far of my knowledge, floating point has a non stable bit analysis. In example, at 32 bit float the 32 bit are not used in the whole duration of the process. Instead of fixed bit and double precision. (Hope I didn't confuse you).

Regarding limiters, some of the best I have used is Tc Electronic Brickwall Limiter System 6000, Sonnox Limiter, PSP Xenon, Waves L3 and of course regarding hardware Weiss DS1mk2

[ckluxen2]

thanks ofps, so the difference between peak+RMS means that RMS shows the average level of a set time. So ppm is the faster analogue meter, good for levelling but not to display the loudness. So why not the peak meter?
Well, floating point is still a secret for me, got to read more about it.

Quiet confusing, perhaps someone knows a good book like mastering for dummies?

[shuutobi]

Many plug-ins have RMS mode, which is more relevant to the way that our ears receive and feel loudness and dB. VU meters (in analogue desks) have a kind of latency (arround 30ms I think) and are not good for leveling. So that's why when u tune a limiter u should use ppm instead of rms.

300ms* ;D

[The Leveller]

In practical terms Floating point DAWS such as live will ignore the least significant bits to allow them to 'be added to the top' of the signal. Essentially meaning you can go into the red without digital distortion occurring. However you still have to be careful as that signal transferred back to the analogue domain will distort so it is still good practice to try and keep your master level below 0dbfs even in the floating point domain.

As far as the mastering and loudness is concerned the bottom line is you are better leaving it to someone else to do. However if you absolutely must do it yourself then you'll find that some of the more affordable mastering tools such as TRacks and Ozone have the meters you seek. TRacks also has a 'loudness' meter with some suggestion guidelines for typical loudness levels by genre.

The best way is simply to a/b your tracks against commercial tracks.

If you mix leaving yourself around 3db of headroom, render from Live as a 24bit file, then re-import this wav file, use a limiter to increase the loudness using the headroom you left yourself then when you are happy, re-render the file at 16bit using one of Lives built in dither algo's. The POW-R noise shaping dither types in Live are great. If you have Katzs book and mastering you can read all about dither in there, he covers well and explains it in detail but in a way you'll understand.

[Tarekith]

In practical terms Floating point DAWS such as live will ignore the least significant bits to allow them to 'be added to the top' of the signal. Essentially meaning you can go into the red without digital distortion occurring.

Just to clarify, that's only with the channel meters in Live and other DAWs, the master meter and channel does not use floating point, so you must be careful to never clip the master.

[0fps]

Many plug-ins have RMS mode, which is more relevant to the way that our ears receive and feel loudness and dB. VU meters (in analogue desks) have a kind of latency (arround 30ms I think) and are not good for leveling. So that's why when u tune a limiter u should use ppm instead of rms.

300ms* ;D

I forgot one digit.

[ckluxen2]

Yes, I will let the mastering thing do someone else, and tried that already, but the master was still not loud and full enough, but I didn`t waste my money, cause I heard what`s the problem in my mixing. Especially I realized to take out some of the lows at 100-200hz out of the bass and the lower mids out of the kick, so they really come together right. As a beginner I always thought the problem were in the sub, so reduced or empasized the sub level. Besides things like sidechaining and all the sounddesign stuff.

But in my opinion I should always do a premaster to check my track with the right level. A/B with a reference track could be really a good choice Leveller. But I think it isn`t too easy to fight with a Track that`s already mastered. Do you level the B-Track down?

So far I exported the 24bit file into Soundtrack Pro, similiar to Logic and used the Channel EQ, Stillwells Event Horizon for clipping and a little bit of the bombardier compressor. I didn`t think about dithering so far and don`t know what exactly happens if I export 16bit out of soundtrack pro.
So reimporting into live could be the better choice perhaps using the dither options.

I don`t have the money for the first class mastering stuff, so I think about Voxengos Elephant, PSP Xenon or Ozone. T-racks is just too expensive.
A mastering eq would be great, too.

I did read Tarekith guides, so I agree a good track don`t need mastering at all (except the headroom limiting). I don`t like overcompression of the most electronic stuff today. So I`m still mainly working at my mix.

thanx

[Tarekith]

Check out the LP10 EQ from DDMF, good sounding and very cheap.

http://www.ddmf.eu/product.php?id=1

[ckluxen]

thanks tarekith

[The Leveller]

If I am a/b comparing for 'loudness' reasons, no I don't compromise the professional track. I aim to match the loudness, or get somewhere near it but at the same time I accept that the pro track was probably mastered on some serious high end hardware that I cannot hope to match.

As you've already guessed it pays to just get your mix right and then use basic limiting to push up the loudness to compare with the same level of pro tracks.

It is nice to get some tracks mastered properly though, they sound so good when they come back. Downside: Costs cash.