Gain Stage Fix for DAW Mix

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JES
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Gain Stage Fix for DAW Mix

Post by JES » Sat Jun 17, 2017 6:45 am

Yes, it rhymes.

I got overzealous and have a few DAW mixes that are too hot. But I like the mixes and don't want to do a total do-over.

It seems like the easiest fix would be to insert a utility gain plug on each channel and drop it, say 5-6db to restore headroom on the main bus.

Am I right that the best way to do this is to drop in the gain plug AFTER any insert effects, like compression and EQ?

TIA.

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I'm Painting Again
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Post by I'm Painting Again » Sat Jun 17, 2017 7:09 am

it's easy to try it every way possible because it's a DAW and the process is so fast

kslight
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Post by kslight » Sat Jun 17, 2017 11:21 am

I would usually go through and pull the output down on the last insert plugin of every channel, or add a generic low CPU plugin with 6 db or whatever taken off and duplicate that across every track. This is assuming there a ton of automation and I don't want to print stems for some reason. Could also use clip gain in pro tools. But I've heard that using the trim plugin in pro tools on the master is "the same" as turning down all the tracks individually. I've always been a little suspicious of that theory, so I use my method instead if I have to...I generally only have to do that to sessions people send me as I leave a lot of headroom on my own mixes.

ashcat_lt
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Post by ashcat_lt » Sat Jun 17, 2017 1:11 pm

What DAW are you in? Most of them nowadays use floating point math in the mix engine and have an absurd amount of headroom. You should be able to just pull down the Master fader.

Edit - Just read kslight's post, so let me be a little more specific:

Most modern DAWs cannot actually clip internally. Well, not until you try to get several billion times louder than your converters could ever reproduce. The 0dbFS "limit" applies only when you try to send it to your converters (they will clip) or bounce/render/export to a fixed point format.

So yeah, turning down the Master fader should be exactly the same as turning down every track the same amount except it's easier because you don't have to worry about what you might do to your sends and/or any non-linear processing (comps, limiters, saturators) that you've already inserted on the bus.

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vvv
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Post by vvv » Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:21 pm

What ashcat_lt said, works for me in CEP2.1.
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I mix with olive juice.

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