Getting to -6 dB before mastering

Don't touch the master bus. Leave at 0db. Turn your tracks and busses down to get where you want. 

The good thing is that you'll quickly get used to mixing at lower levels, and it's likely that your mixes will actually benefit from it. :)

Good stuff... Fabfilter Pro-L, I have, like and use Ozone? But Fabfilter is the Shizite...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7PYjalQ2vQ

Most of my mixes barely tickle the peak meter at -9dB, some even less.

It's no big deal whatsoever to get this right at source.

Here's how I work things. Many people have their own way of recording and what they consider good input signals. I like -6dB myself. It just works the best for me no matter if I record in 16 or 24 bit.

From there, as you mix your material...leave your master bus wave form preview on. See where you may be getting peaks. When you see them, find the source as to why they are happening. You may need to automate a volume, you may need more compression or you may need to just adjust your attack time on your compressor so that it reacts differently. If the peak is so nasty that you can't control it, try to recut the part if you can. Never try to fix things in the mix. All that does is waste time. Get the best sounds you can before you even hit the record button. Peaks in a mix can kill your quality. They can come from lots of things. Excessive low end pumping, transients on kicks, snares, high gain guitar whoomfing, piercing high end on instruments, hi-hats, lack of compression, transient designer over-use, improper eq curves, lack of automation (always try to automate and eq a peak before you try to compress it in attempt to fix it) the list goes on and on.

When I'm done recording and start to mix, all my faders are turned down to infinity...which means all the way down to nothing. Master bus at 0dB and I mix my song. At the end when I'm happy with my mix, I clear my meters and play the song from the beginning to the end and see what my peak is on my master bus. My personal target area is -3dB. Why? I wish I knew...I just ended up that way and have been doing it for years. I had a project of mine mixed by Bob Katz in 2004 and his instructions to me were "make sure your mixes are sent to me at -3dB" and I sort of felt good about that because I'd always done it that way. I can't remember how or why I did it though.

Never use a preset in a program as is on your material. Some of them can be good starting points, but you have to know what each thing does before you allow it to be on your mix. Just because something may say "hard rock master" and your tune is hard rock, doesn't mean it will work. Compression, limiting and eq settings will always need to be adjusted. Remember, when they created that preset, your material wasn't what they made it from. :)

Watch reverbs that are supplied in mastering programs. 9 out of 10 times this is never needed and will only mess up the mix. The only time you reach for something like this is when a mix may be so dry, it just sounds lifeless. I have of course, had some pretty rough mixes from clients that had so much noise going on from analog gear, that I had to remove the noise. This in turn forced me to cut off some of the music a bit earlier than it should have been. In this instance, a small room verb can be applied so it doesn't cut off dead. But it's rare for me to use a verb on a master because to me, it just sounds bad. Try your best to stay away from that.

Watch your limiting. If the crack in your snare drum is gone when you compare it to your unmastered file, limiting is most likley the culprit and you over-did it.

Anyway, just some bits and pieces of things to watch and listen for. Always adjust your levels within your tracks and try your best not to touch the master bus. If you find you have to run your track super high and still fall short of a good -3dB peak level...you're simply recording too low from the start. With me recording at -6dB on all my stuff, most of my tracks end up at about -7dB to -10dB while mixing. I'm fine with that and have plenty of horsepower to go up if I need to. Just watch those peaks...they are the death of people. Good luck...hope this helps. :)

-Danny

Thanks for some GREAT posts!!! It's becoming pretty clear that I started off the wrong way... I have the feeling I should redo all my mixes but unfortunately I don't have the time for that anymore... Bummer. I talked elsewhere about letting my wavs be mastered somewhere, but apart from not having the money for it, I also doubt if the material is good enough to be decently mastered.

Well, lesson learned. The next time I'll do things completely differently, that's for sure!