A post by another user prompted me to ask this.
 
A song I was working sounded fine and had good solid levels but in two or three places hit the red on Master for a brief instant.  I heard nothing amiss but it worried me to see red on Master, so I basically went by to scratch and remixed it, with a result of a lower level mix.  (And it sounds lower level that its companions on the album.)
 
Should I have just let it go?  Or is it always bad to see a little red square, not matter how briefly?

Why not bring it up with a limiter to the same rms as the rest of the album?

For me, I never accept any known clips as it is a slippery slope.

gswitz, You are correct although I need a better limiter.  Boost11 sounds weird sometimes and the choices in EZMix are sometimes good (sometimes not) but they let peaks through.  I am thinking about Ozone.
 
I will take your advice, although I am curious if those instantaneous peaks are a problem.

It may just as easy to do a little volume automation to handle occasional peak problems. It should be possible to zoom it and make very accurate and subtle adjustments to keep it out of the red. A good limiter is an essential piece of gear though.

sometimes use boost 11 without using the boost knob just the limiter knob. I can hear the weird sound at 5 level setting on the boost knob but nothing weird when using the limiter alone. My ear is not yet fully trained that i may be wrong.

phrygiann, Good comment.  I (dumbly) did not think of that.
 
Still curious if you guys think a quick red dot is always fatal.

Always. Ozone is a good investment.

If it clipped during the mastering, then there is no reason to remix it as a better mastering of the song would have fixed it. It looks to me as your using the term "masteirng" very loosely,as if it was mastered, it would not be clipping and it would be on the level of other songs in that genre.
 
FYI: Boost 11 is not a good tool for this. Its very harsh and you have no control over the attack, ratio and release times and these settings are very important if you want to keep the punch and dynamics of the song.
 
CJ

Fatal .no. I just have a work habit of not tolerating them ever. How would you feel riding in a car showing off the mix if the car eq suddenly made the clip glaring?

I had a friend who was shocked to find that could raise my finger ever time his mix clipped. He didn't think it was audible. He admitted that it was clipping , and he didn't think it was noticeable.

Being it the red from time to time is nothing to get worried about. The only thing is don't let it clip.
 
If you see it peak once in awhile in the red all that means is its using most of the available bits. Thats is not a bad thing.