Not sure if this is the right place to post, so feel free to move…
I need some mastering help. I am using T racks and T racks3.
I get the mix sounding pretty decent, but anytime I add compression/limiter to the overall mix is where I have an issue. If the intro just has guitar and vocals, and then the drums come in the whole lot compresses/volume drops. No matter what I change in the settings it doesnt seem to make a difference. Obviously something Im doing is wrong. I have change the attack times to very high and low and I still get the issue.
It seems that you are hitting the compressor too hard. You can back off a bit by adjusting the threshold (or input gain/drive - I’m not familiar with T racks controls).
You might be lost in the settings jungle by now though, so I would probably start from scratch and unload everything from the master channel. Then set Cubase to loop the busiest section of the song, as this is where any compression will have the most impact.
Now, load the compressor and choose a suitable preset (the preset name should give you an indication of what it is doing). From here it really only should be a case of adjusting the threshold to taste.
As a last resort here’s a really good stereo compressor:
It’s about the most transparent and smooth compressor I have tried, and it’s freeware. Just install and repeat the above steps.