How do I get louder volume without clipping?

[John Vere]

14 minutes ago, Will. said:

Again: if it is not needed why use it? If you can EQ, Compress, Reverb, Delay within you Midi/Vst Instrument why use a plugin when you've already gotten the polish/desired taste to your sound? Dont over kill your peaks and dynamics. 

100% agreed. I think a lot of newbie audio engineers these days don't realize there's a huge danger in have all those effects available. My first studio had 1 each , a Yamaha stereo compressor, an Alesis Reverb and a Digitech delay.  You had basic EQ on the mixer. And when this was on Tape you had to optimize for peak levels to avoid the noise floor. The tone and quality of the recording depended on the source and mikes used. We made very good recordings that some of which are still being listened to and enjoyed. Most of the small studios like mine had abpout $10,000 worth of gear. A real studio would be more like $100,000! 

Guess what. You now get the $100,000 studio free. Well ya, minus the cool monitor system and treatment. But almost everything else we paid big bucks for in those days is now ITB. 

To clarify I will say my approach is for recording traditional Pop, Rock, acoustic and Country music. Electronic music is absolutely open to over use of effects , that's what it is all about. But most styles of music do not need to be abused by overuse of effects.

Example. I don't use any effects until I get to the mixing stage. But often while listening to mix you decide that something else is needed and so you have a fully fleshed out mix and need to track a new guitar. I will bypass all the effects to do this  and guess what? sometimes everything all of a sudden sounds better! Try it. Overuse of reverb is often a good way to muddy up a mix. And squashing everything with compression makes for a flat sounding mix. And as Will said I use the effects built in to most of my VST instruments and save that as a pre set. That instrument can now be added to any song and sound perfect every time I use it. 

Ya, now I'm out of coffee too!  

[mettelus]

On 3/6/2023 at 1:45 PM, T Boog said:

Btw, I do have a high pass on bass, drums and most instruments so I dont think it's a low freq thing. Also, my soft synths are the same level as my audio tracks so I don't think it's an input recording level issue.

It is a bit more complex than this, and as soon as you mention "synth" it raises concerns. Each track/instrument should only have its relevant frequency material passed into FX chains. Frequency collisions are commonly countered with slight EQ boosts to instruments that use those, and complementary EQ cuts to everything else (mirror EQ). Another trick is to push colliding frequencies to the sides and leave the focused instrument more center. The goal is to keep frequencies that only add to overall power out of the mix (kills your headroom drastically).

With synths in particular... presets are often for demo purposes, cover a WIDE frequency range, and are processed internally to no end (so they sound cool solo). As soon as you are mixing a synth, 3-6dB cuts/shelves to anything conflicting with another instrument is advised. Automation can be your friend to bring things in and out of focus as well, but knocking down "extraneous frequencies" (they do add up quickly) gives you a lot more headroom to work with for the overall mix. The "wall of sound" is achieved by filling the audio stage with relevant frequencies that each have their own place so they can be heard. Synths often "take up everything" so be wary of them (especially presets).

Edited August 20, 2023 by mettelus

[BigT1]

I was just wondering if you were trying to track a really awesome guitar riff on a gut punching 412 cabinet with a 100 watt head that is really cranked while trying to listen through a set of 5 inch Rokits....  The problem might not necessarily be the driver... 5 inch speakers in a small to mid-size room can be fairly loud.  I went to 8 inch speakers to help the difference when tracking because i liked calling down the thunder, but I had a choice, I could either hear my CLICK track OR spend a lot of time lining up transients.  I learned to turn my guitar down and go for clarity...

[John Vere]

Few days ago I set up my studio in serious listening mode to listen and re mix all 35 of the songs I’ve been working on for 25 years. Last mixes were noted as being done in March. 
Here is another tool I found useful for proofing my mixes. Muting  buses. 
I needed backing tracks for the Summer gigs. I mute the guitar and vocal bus and export a custom mix. This leaves Bass,Drums and keyboards. 
I found flaws and errors as I was listening and playing along to practice for upcoming gigs.  

Point is, soloing and muting busses will reveal issues with your mixes. As well as using as many playback systems as you can. 

Anyways I had to take notes and fix stuff as I progressed which is all that happened since last March. I use Mix Recall to save different mixes. 

Gigs are almost  over and I had some time to apply these changes to the full songs. I sat and listened to them all last night, this time using  my headphones. I only made a few notes. It’s usually 2 pages.  I think tonight is the night!
 

All I can say is every time I sit down to re mix I have a totally new workflow. You never stop learning and improving your mixing skills.