Should my mix buss be set to zero ?

[adventureboy]

I'm planning on exporting my mixes as WAV files to be mastered later on, is it ok/normal practice to leave the main mix buss at zero as long as the overall levels don't peak into the red. If I need to raise overall volume I'll do it on the track itself keeping an eye on the out buss peaks. The reason I ask is that I've heard the expression 'leaving some headroom for mastering' and was unsure if it meant physically lowering the actual mixbuss fader to -3db for instance or leaving it at zero and making sure it doesn't peak too high when mixing.

One last (dumb?) question - on the matter of raising an individual track's volume - is it acceptable to push that track's fader higher than zero (if it doesn't go into red) to increase the track's volume as long as the main mixbuss also doesn't peak or is it better to leave the individual track fader at zero and to use something like a limiter, inflator or compressor gain to raise it?

Thanks
Rob

[rick-slo]

Just leave at 0 if the peaks are a few dBs down. Volume levels can be altered later on.
All software leaves a trace effect on the original sound. For simple volume level changes I would not use more complicated software that has other funtions (compression, equalization, etc) to do that.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by adventureboy

I'm planning on exporting my mixes as WAV files to be mastered later on, is it ok/normal practice to leave the main mix buss at zero as long as the overall levels don't peak into the red. If I need to raise overall volume I'll do it on the track itself keeping an eye on the out buss peaks. The reason I ask is that I've heard the expression 'leaving some headroom for mastering' and was unsure if it meant physically lowering the actual mixbuss fader to -3db for instance or leaving it at zero and making sure it doesn't peak too high when mixing.

SOL (Standard Operating Level) on a master fader is simply a starting point. If you are pretty deep into a mix and find yourself a few db short or a few too high, you can use the master to either recover the dbs or trim down as needed without having to alter the whole mix.

One last (dumb?) question - on the matter of raising an individual track's volume - is it acceptable to push that track's fader higher than zero (if it doesn't go into red) to increase the track's volume as long as the main mixbuss also doesn't peak or is it better to leave the individual track fader at zero and to use something like a limiter, inflator or compressor gain to raise it?

Thanks
Rob

Once again, the SOL mark is a starting point. Typically, in order to best use your signal-to-noise ratio and headroom, you want to set up the inputs so that full volume on the material matches 0VU on the meters when the fader is at that zero SOL. If you find yourself constantly running a fader (or several) high it might be wise to use the channel gain to increase the signal gain to where you have some fader room left at the top for special purposes. The opposite is also true. But it hurts nothing to run a fader above zero, per se.

On "leaving headroom for mastering," this involves two different items: signal strength and dynamics. Typically in this quiet digital world, you don't need to use up every bit (literally - digital bits) of your dynamic range to keep a clean signal. I tend to mix with a couple of dbs left over to make sure that I never distort. It then becomes the mastering engineer's job to "use up every bit" and get the loudest file possible. With dynamics, the same applies: it is easier for a mastering engineer to compress if needed than to find a way to restore dynamic range, so you always want to leave the final compression and limiting to him.

Bob