Ableton Forum

Yep, you're not dreaming, another question about mixdowns before mastering !

Just want to know if a limiter on the master is completely neutral (when not reducing gain, of course).

I'm asking because, very often, i got a decent headroom for 99.9% of the song, but i may have 3 or 4 level spikes that push my master level in the red for a very short time lapse. Usually adjusting the mix solves this but sometimes, with the use of random stuff, the result is unpredictable.

Thank you

Hello Chap,

I know the feels! Mixing and mastering can be weird. Especially when using ableton.... Lets take a few steps back. How many tracks are in this mix? Do you go through and fix red line spikes when you finish producing? Do you filter out frequencies you don't use? And are you using the Freeze and Flatten function built into ableton before you start mixing/mastering?

Regards,

KEAMO

Thanks for the answer !
i must say that i've already recorded several albums, so i guess i sort of know all this stuff. i am really concerned about the use of random settings (in autofilter for instance, intense use of random follow actions, chance in beat repeat, etc.) that can lead to unpredictable peaks.

yeah, i don't usually freeze or flatten because i can't stop producing even while mixing. And i like unpredictability...

chapelier fou wrote: Just want to know if a limiter on the master is completely neutral (when not reducing gain, of course).

it would depend on which limiter you are using. some limiters will colour the sound even when not compressing, some are very clean.

talking about the live's native.

the Live 9 manual says that the Live Limiter has no effect below threshold.

why not run a null test on one of your tracks?

fishmonkey wrote: why not run a null test on one of your tracks?

When I first started I was releasing my music in too high of a quality and it was exporting out these random peaks that I didn't understand until I researched bitrates/samplerates/filecompression/etc... Really helps to freeze/flat then check your master level before you even start really trying to mess with compression/eq/limiters. Freeze/flatten will show you a lot of flaws in NI's synths i've recently learned.