[Ardour-Users] Peak levels on master bus vs single track

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Fri, 3 Mar 2017 19:48:09 +0100, Axel 'the C.L.A.' Müller wrote:
>Ok, maybe your description/wording was just a bit unlucky then. ;)

Résumé

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 23:22:50 +0100, Robin Gareus wrote:
>Yet if a percussion track can duck vocals due to a limiter on the
>master-bus, that percussions must have been well above the set limit
>(and actually pump the whole mix, not only vocals).

This is the risk when using a limiter for the stereo main sum, instead
of using it for a dedicated channel.

On Fri, 3 Mar 2017 18:59:17 +0100, Axel 'the C.L.A.' Müller wrote:
>If it causes "horrendous ducking" then the limiter is definitely hit
>too hard and most likely there's also a serious problem in the mix
>in general.

+

On Fri, 3 Mar 2017 19:42:43 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>A head-on collision on the Autobahn is more or less
>impossible. It's possible, but indicates a really big underling
>problem. A pumping limiter is like using the wrong driving direction
>on the Autobahn.

There is a problem, not necessarily a serious problem in the mix, but at
least a serious problem in getting rid of a peak issue, by using the
wrong method to do it or because it's simply impossible. Instead of
pumping, I would expect distortion, if the peak needs to be limited too
much. Fortunately a little bit of overdrive alike sound sometimes is
pleasant. I know a limiter that provides special saturation settings to
halfway control the distortion.

Btw. an issue with digital recordings could be parts that were recorded
with a level > 0 dBFS, sometimes distortion caused by a limiter could
mask the ugly sound caused by a borked part that was recorded > 0 dBFS.