Mixing in BM3
Alright, so this forum has been extremely useful as I have been learning. My question is about mixing and volume. I was making the rookie mistake of mixing at close to max volume on my ipad, and if I lower to about halfway the mix barely comes through and obviously doesn't sound as good. Is there a way to increase overall volume without muddying the mix? Any good resources on mixing specifically in BM3? Thank you!
Comments
Hi @drterminus
Mixing and mastering in BM3 is very similar to mixing in other DAWs, so I'd suggest watching some YouTube videos and learning about things like compression and limiting - which are essential tools and concepts when trying to maximise volume without clipping/distortion. Mastering is a complicated topic (in fact mastering engineers spend their whole lives perfecting the skills) so it's a bit tricky to explain it all here, but YouTube is a great place to start.
My top BM3-specific tip is that it's OK to clip the individual channels, but your master channel must never go into red. I recommend always loading a good quality limiter as an effect on the master channel.
There are lots of limiters available as AUV3, but the cheapest one I recommend is by Amazing Noises:
http://apps.amazingnoises.com/product/limiter/
https://apps.apple.com/app/id945375756
It works great in BM3 and really helps you maximise the volume of your track.
Slap a limiter or something similar on the master track. You can adjust individual track volumes or the input gain of the limiter to make things louder. There's a free plugin called JAX !Make Louder that when turned all the way down (default) will not allow the volume to clip past the master fader level, and you can turn the dial up to taste. There's also several premium limiters that provide more control.
Is this JAX app good mate - if so I'm going to download it!!
It does what it says on the tin, and it's free, so you should download it to try it out. Last I saw, it creates crackling if the knob is automated quickly, so best to just set it and forget it rather than automate it. I use Maxima when I need more control, but it's not free.
Downloading now!!