Voyager wrote: ↑11 Jan 2018
selig wrote: ↑11 Jan 2018
I use -12 dBFS peaks for individual tracks, and -6 dBFS for a mix, and -1 dBFS for masters.
ok, since i make only singles i usually brick wall most of my tracks and get the ceiling at 0.2db. Do you see anything wrong with it ? I'm asking because if you set -1dbfs for master i guess you may have a good reason to
selig wrote: ↑11 Jan 2018
Not sure I understand the question 100%, but I feel I get better results by using a little dynamic reduction in multiple stages rather than all at once at the end.
I mean in the mastering stage the more you're limiting ( brick wall ) the lower the crest factor you get and i though we may compensate this way too.
I don't think anyone would notice the 0.8 dB difference, and it offers a little protection from different D/As and inter-sample peaks (though some would say you need as much as 3 dB or so to cover every possible case). If clipping didn't matter, I'd leave it at 0 dB (for industrial tracks and noise projects, for example), and for acoustic music I've done 1.5 to 2 dB headroom.
Sometimes I go with 0.5 dB headroom on louder projects. I'm not being overly scientific with these numbers, just making a choice and sticking with it - again a dB isn't going to make or break a project, so I err on the side of caution!
As for your second question, the harder you drive any single compressor, the more it will color the sound. Each device is different, some can take a lot of reduction before you hear it. But I can hear degradation starting between 3-6 dB gain reduction on many devices. But because I'm doing a little bit at many different stages (individual, bus, mix, master) I don't end up needing more than 2-4 dB GR on the master for 90% of my work, and I'm typically shooting for a crest factor of around 12 dB.
Another factor is I don't want to change the mix with my mastering, I just want to "tame" it a bit. Sometimes I hardly need any limiting at all, which is fine with me - the goal is a target loudness, and I use crest factor to judge this. That means if I'm already at the target with the mix, there's no need to push it further with mastering.
I'm not saying anyone should do what I do, I'm just offering my way of working as a choice - I always suggest folks try different techniques and choose the one you like best!