From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing
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Get in the Mix: Maximizing mix loudness with brickwall limiters
From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing
Get in the Mix: Maximizing mix loudness with brickwall limiters
A typical audio signal, whether it's one individual instrument or a multitrack mix, is usually made up of many quick transients whose amplitude values extend much further than the average level, or body, of the signal. These transieants prevent us from raising the overall level of the signal too high. Because if we did, those transients would exceed zero DBFS, clipping our output converters and causing distortion. Now this presents a dilemma for our human ear, because our ears are tuned to average out loudness over a longer period of time than a millisecond long transient hitting the top of our dynamic range. So how do we get the average level of our mix up to a comparable level with the rest of the songs in our music collection? By clamping down on those peak transients and raising up the average level of our mix, using a brick wall limiter. Think of a mix going in to a brick wall limiter like a spring being pushed in to a concrete wall. Since the spring can never go further than the…
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