Bouncing & Mixing Volumes

[djglenn]

Two questions:

1. I work with a few studios in my area doing voice recordings for various projects (one of the advantages of being a native English speaker in Taiwan :p ).
They all use Pro Tools. When they bounce their tracks, they do it in real-time, which according to them, they have no choice. I've noticed that other programs give you a choice between real-time and "super lightning fast" time. Just wondering if in today's computer age, if there's really a difference between the two? When given the choice, SHOULD you choose one or the other?

2. Aside from not wanting to piss off your neighbors, are there any advantages to mixing at lower volumes? I read somewhere that said 'any' mix will sound good at higher volumes. And that the trick was to get it to sound good at lower volumes.

I suppose with some music, that would be true. But with dance music I tend to think that (at times) you must mix at high volumes. It's hard to feel the power of the bass at low volumes. I've found when I mix at night, at lower volumes, I think everything sounds great....then the next morning I play it loud and find that the levels seem all off.

What's your (anyone's) take on it?

Thanks!

[NuEra]

Ive heard 85db as a pretty standard mix level. Its the standard volume for movies to be played at in the theater, although, something tells me they are a heck of a lot louder than this. I've also heard 85db as the cutoff for when hearing loss starts to occur.

The sound of the mix will vary at different levels as explained in the Fletcher-Munson curve. Because of this effect mixes will sound better at louder volumes which is why may have heard there are some advantages to mixing at a lower level.



I'm sure Jesse will be able to clear this up a little further.

[admin]

Pro tools is set up that way as it was generally used with a lot of live gear on tdm systems. According to them they stick with the realtime bounce so that you 'hear what you get' for the bounce. Offlline should always be the same but some programs can do wierd things on offline like Logic used to have automation problems etc... But as a general rule they should be the same.

There really isnt a good reason I can think of for Pro Tools to limit you to realtime only, there should be a choice but for some reason they are sticking to that way of doing things. I have a feeling there is something in the core of PT's programming that might be tough to change at this point...

Mix wise NuEra's advice is solid, the 83-85 db thing was set up a long time ago (it was initially 83db decided in 1983...)

I like to go to both extremes. As you said with dance stuff you got to check it loud to make sure the mix doesn't fall apart when you crank it. Problems in the mix get amplified when played loud so this is a good idea to check.

On the other end mixing at really low volumes is a great idea as you can hear the overall balance of the track really well here. If things sound nice and even when the mix is just a whisper then you are probably on the right track. When you mix loud there is some compression in both the speakers and amps compressing as well as your ears compressing. So this can make a mix sound more togther than it is. Also when played loud almost anything sounds good and 'exciting'. \

Some of the things I really listen to at low volumes is the groove/timing as well as I like to hear the bass/sub just coming through. A really nicely tuned bass will just come through as a solid 'grounding' to the track at low volumes. If you have to crank the speakers just to hear the bottom end then it might not be as effecient as it could be.

I'd recommend mixing about 40% low volumes, 50% at 85db or middle of the road volume wise and then checking about 10% of the time at louder volumes.

[djglenn]

Think I'm heading out to find a decibel meter. Not sure at what decibel I'm mixing at, but I'm guessing it's probably too loud. I think all those years in the dj booth has been catching up with me. I've had this ringing in my ears for the past few years (yeah, I know...) and my wife constantly tells me that I talk too loud. *L*

Guess I should get an ear check up while I'm at it....

Thanks for all the advice.

Glenn

[CainArcher]

Decibel meter nowadays comes with every DAW or plugin

[admin]

I think what Glenn meant was something to measure the db coming out of the speakers. The meters in DAW's don't show this.

[djglenn]

Bingo!

[CainArcher]

Ok, I get it now

[admin]

I just spent about 6 hours mixing yesterday almost all at pretty low level, worked out really well. What I do is then 'reward' myself with turning it up just every now and then to check things and finally admire the mix at full volume near the end of the session.