You can input this number as a negative into your limiter and your RMS level for your overall loudness will be -10.00įor example: Which song is louder RMS level -18.23 or -12.16 and will probably be the number you feed into your limiter.(Remember with RMS levels the lower the number the louder the song) Take out your calculator and input 17.34 and now subtract 10.00 you should get 7.34This is the number we are shooting for. Quite a few mastering engineers use what they call a mastering chain and during the course of building or fattening the song they already have an idea what they would like the end result (RMS) to be.Īs you get into mastering deeper you will find that it is more than just sticking a number into the limiter and your done.Ī mastering chain should consist of the following: (Below are some options)ġ. When you are finished mixing a track, input it into Har-Bal and check for peaks and valleys.2. Place the following plugins into the chain in this order and save as a preset.Ī) Waves Q10 Paragraphic EQ (or something similar)b) Linear Phase Multiband Compressorc) Stereo Imager - Correct any phase issues and RMS mismatchesd) Limiter - Always use this and set the outceiling for -0.1 Open a wave editor (wavelab, sound forge)3. Now keep in mind that you may not need to use every one of these each time and can simply bypass any of them.Īlways, always listen to your song at 85db while mastering.

This is not loud and it enables you to darn near HEAR your music almost flat. You can pick up a sound pressure meter from any Radio Shack (roughly $30.00). If your song is too bassy or trebly you will know immediately at this volume. Three meters you should always have open are: All software included with Wavelab I am sure there are some more engineers in this forum who can elaborate on this concept a little more scientifically. Level Meter - Checking the peak and rms levels constantly (Make sure you are buliding up the song without clipping) How is it nstantly keeping the levels at 85db by bringing down my main volume. Spectrum Analyzer - checking for sudden spikes and overall patterns In other words even though I am increasing The overall volume I am still maintaining my listening level.

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