alewgro

Woodyoflop
Ha. it most likely is. Im sure someone will be along soon enough to de-bunk what i just said as well lol. As far as your process tho. It is similar. Sound has a lot do with the way you perceive it. I do also have a hearing issue, my left ear has a deadspot where i cannot hear much in the 5000 range. So my right ear makes up for it and my left might interpret the frequency more lower or higher in range. It does cause issues sometimes panning wise as u might imagine lol. Thats when i have to look at meters to make sure the right really isnt louder than the left ;) lol.

DUDE, i have the SAME problem in my ear... I want to say mine is more in the 2000 range, but still.   How did that happen to you? 

Mine was an ear infection, it hurt so bad... and it created a deadspot in my ear.  I was depressed for a long time because it effects how I hear music :(

Im in the Army, im infantry and specialize in Mortars.. So aloot of Booms and shooting without ear protection unfortunately, but im young and thought i was invincible and now recognize how close it was to destroying any chance i had in music lol. Wish i would have worn some damn Ear-protection like we were sopposed to. My left ear now has tinitus.

alewgro
 
 
If you are only limitng 1-2db, i would imagine you are tracking too hot, no?  what is your peak before you do your temporary master?

I just roll the master gain until the levels are taking up 1-2 dB in the limiter. Back off the compressor until I get the right average loudness. I twiddle the master bus gain quite a lot.
 
What Bit Said.

I track and mix at K20.... leaving all kinds of headroom. When I need to present a rough mix to anyone else, or for myself to listen in different environments I apply a limiter on the main out and kick the volume to K-14. That gets the volume closer to other reference tracks yet still retains most of the dynamic range.

codamedia
I track and mix at K20.... leaving all kinds of headroom. When I need to present a rough mix to anyone else, or for myself to listen in different environments I apply a limiter on the main out and kick the volume to K-14. That gets the volume closer to other reference tracks yet still retains most of the dynamic range.

When I record, it really doesn't matter. I'm just trying to get good recordings.
 
When I mix, I target the Head-Room I expect to target on the final mix. I find it really hard to change a -14 to a -12. So many setting are made to target a particular level it takes me a long time to repoint a full mix. Going from -20 to -12 would be really hard for me. I'd have to reset levels and compression on every track.

I never change the K System reference level during any production. One could go from a lower level to a higher level but I never do it in production.  It is not good.  If I start a project at K -20 then I finish it there with a K-20 pre mastered mix.
 
Mastering is the best way to covert a K-20 mix to say a K-12 mix. You start by adding 2dB in the editor and then the other 6 dB in the mastering stages that follow.
 
Firstly you open the K-20 track in an editor. You can easily hard limit all the peaks there to -3 dB and add 2 db of rms gain right there to the track without changing any dynamics.
 
Then the following three stages of mastering apply eg EQ, Compression and limiting. It is easy to gain 2 dB in each of those stages. None of them doing much but all adding up to a further 6 dB of gain.
 
You will end up with a punchy loud K-12 master in no time.  You will never get it that good by suddenly altering ref levels during a project and have to recalibrate everything at that level.
 
In a way it is best to do everything at K-20 because you can so easily turn that into a K-16, (iTunes level)  K-14, K-12 or even higher as I do with K -10 masters.  And for my hip hop friends I push stuff up all the way to K-8 but not so much these days. For broadcast you can leave a K-20 master alone because it often works out to about -22 LUFS anyway.
 
In answer to the OP if I am working at K-14 I just generate a rough mix at K-14 and not sweat where the volume control ends up in the car.  Does not matter.  If I am working at K-20 then I generate a rough mix at K-20.  I can quickly open the editor and hard limit everything to -7dB  (and that won't be limiting too many peaks anyway)  then adding 6 dB of rms gain to simulate a  K-14 master.  Rough and ready but gets the job done.  In the editor I sometimes add a touch of compression and limiting and add a little rms gain and it is up to K-14 very quick smart.  I don't alter my recording system calibration, just how I prepare the rough mix before it is burned or copied and goes out for testing elsewhere.
 

Jeff Evans
I never change the K System reference level during any production. One could go from a lower level to a higher level but I never do it in production.  It is not good.  If I start a project at K -20 then I finish it there with a K-20 pre mastered mix.
 
Mastering is the best way to covert a K-20 mix to say a K-12 mix. You start by adding 2dB in the editor and then the other 6 dB in the mastering stages that follow.
 
In answer to the OP if I am working at K-14 I just generate a rough mix at K-14 and not sweat where the volume control ends up in the car.  Does not matter.  If I am working at K-20 then I generate a rough mix at K-20.  I can quickly open the editor and hard limit everything to -7dB  (and that won't be limiting too many peaks anyway)  then adding 6 dB of rms gain to simulate a  K-14 master.  Rough and ready but gets the job done.  In the editor I sometimes add a touch of compression and limiting and add a little rms gain and it is up to K-14 very quick smart.  I don't alter my recording system calibration, just how I prepare the rough mix before it is burned or copied and goes out for testing elsewhere.

 
It may not be clear in my post, but this is exactly what I do - you just explain it in a lot more detail :)
 
I work in K-20. My tracking and my mixing. When I hand a mix over for mastering, it is a K-20 mix... I let them take over from there to get the volume up...
 
But when I hand over a rough mix (temporary mix as the OP says) to an artist, or if I take the project to reference it outside of my environment I do a pseudo mastering job and kick the levels up to K-14 through a combination of turning up the volume a little (in the DAW), and applying some limiting.

Sorry, but I am not familiar with the "K" reference, can someone explain?
 
What "Span" (free) should I be downloading?
 
Thanks all.

Very good, thanks.
 
Is there a free input metering plug-in?
 
Something that would tell me what is coming from my MOTU 8Pres, as I have two of them.
 
I never use Sonars meters when tracking and only view the Preamp meters, but would love to see what is actually coming in to Sonar.
 
If so, where would I put this, with regards to Sonar and viewing such input meters when tracking?
 
Thanks

I start my recording process with the end in mind. In other words, I have my mastering plug in the master buss and start working envelopes on the tracks almost as soon as they are recorded. I try to "flesh out" the final version of the song as I imagine it will end up as I work through the process of recording the final tracks. If I need to "quiet" a track I just mute it until I want it back in. Sometimes, it stays muted because I like it better that way.
 
I will mix a rough mix and place it into my mp3 player and ride around to my daily jobsites while I listen. It's during that drive-time that I hear things that need fixing..... everything from levels to EQ to lyric and even structural changes to the song.
 
I head back to the studio a few days after I have listened and make the changes....then repeat the process.  As this is occurring, the EQ and levels get tweeked and when I'm ready to export the "final version" most.... 95% of the job is already done.
 
With digital studios, doing it this way is very simply to do. I really don't pay attention to the K system choosing instead to simply play it by ear.