Should the ideal rendered mix peak closer to 0.0db or less?

    Quote from RosboneMako

    This is what I was referring to above with having good source recordings. Meaning if it is recorded/mixed with the right EQ, it will sound great no matter how much compression you use.

    I don't quite agree with that. You can definitely squeeze the life out of a recording with a compressor, especially when compressing the whole mix. I use compressors sparingly. The key is get it right at the source. That leaves less work for you in the mixing process.


    I mixed and mastered a song for a friend of mine. The tracks were awful. He later told me that he gave me that song because he knew the tracks were not great and he wanted to see what I could do with it. He then told me that I ended up with a much better master than he ever expected it to be. All of that to say that you can still make music with tracks that are not the best but it will take a lot more time to get it there. I worked my butt off on those tracks to get them to sound decent. Good tracks won't need a lot of production to get your song to a good place. "Get it right at the source" is my mantra. As a note, I used multiple compressors on each of the vocal tracks on this song and applied them lightly. He really liked the way that came out.

    Quote from JEverly

    I don't quite agree with that. You can definitely squeeze the life out of a recording with a compressor, especially when compressing the whole mix. I use compressors sparingly. The key is get it right at the source. That leaves less work for you in the mixing process.

    I meant "you will not need compression" to make it sound great and loud. It is inherently loud already. The energy is in the right frequency range, etc.

    The reason I use Goldwave is that it does not act like a normal compressor circuit that uses analog amplifiers to adjust gain based on incoming voltages. It literally chops the heads off data. So it is almost impossible to over compress and make the music lifeless like an analog compressor will. All you can do is make it louder and crunchier.


    EDIT: Goldwave is the only software I own that I use everyday. I use it for 100's of reasons not just compression and EQ. Not saying it is the best and everyone should use it. Just for my use case, I find it useful in a million ways I never planned on using it. Like viewing the frequency spectrum and having VU meters when editing Kemper profiles. If it was $19 like when I bought it, I would buy everyone here a copy just to support the Goldwave people. Maybe I can get a group discount :/