When i export a mixdown and then use Wavelab and Ozone to master the level isn’t high enough for Ozone
The input on the Ozone meter never gets high enough to be usble
My RMS is about -29 with a peak of 16.7
Should i use a maximiser in the master fader of Cubase to get a louder export ?
In fact what are the best levels to export from Cubase ready for mastering ?
You should simply use healthy mix and export levels, no maximizer needed unless you want to alter the sound of your mix.
Apart fro.that doesn’ t Ozone or Wavelab have some sort of input gain? I can’t believe that.
The input slider on Ozone is fully up and the level doesn’t get into the ozone green area which is their recommended input level
Everyone is very vague. what is a healthy mix and export level ?
A healthy mix level is about -20 to -14 dB RMS with a maximum peak level lower than 0 dB FS. Your mix level seems too low. You have a lot of headroom at -16,7 dB peak. If your recorded audio is at very low level and you don’t have enough fader gain, I suggest adding some pre gain on every channel. In the analog aera, audio engeneers used VU-meters to measure there levels. They didn`t show peak level thouth, so they had a lot of headroom to prevent distorsion. The target value was 0 VU which is translated to the digital world as -18 dB RMS. That is a good level for every plugin to work with.
Everything that doesn’ t clip the output file. The output file is probably clipped at 0dB FS when exporting to fixed point format.
I personally suggest not to use the pre-gain on every channel, since it will mess with threshold dependant plugins and alter your mix.
Thanks Guys.
Back to mixing again
You are definitly right. The better alternative would be to record at a proper level. But he seems to have set the recording levels too low to get to the sweetspot. So there is no way as to redo the mix if the fader gain on the channels is insufficient. As you said: he may have to readjust the paramters for dynamic processing though.
Simply raise the masterfader…
^^^^^^ THIS !!!
Before adding any process, its beter to make a rough mix gain staging, and depending on the music style, the RMS level should hit 0db on the K20 meter (K14 for heavey styles like EDM etc.)
A good trick is to bring the bass&kick so they hit 0db RMS on the K meter.
Working like this u will have a more consistent level on every mix and the peaks Will rarely hit 0db FS.
That gain staging is also good for hitting plugins correctly depending on the way they are calibrated. UAD plugins for example.
That’s what I said. Thank you for supporting proper gain staging. Raising the masterfader is something titchyblackcat would have thought of in the first place. So I didn’t give this obvious advice.