mastering limiting

[laboroflove]

hello.I record lots of song's with as little of compression as possible.
I was wondering if I was to run the final mix through a mastering limiter at the end anyway.which I do.
Should I be overly concerned if the snare or the bass guitar get a little loud at times or vocals during mixing?.
Would it be better to squash it all during mastering.?
and also whats the big talk about certain compressors?
The digirack compressors that came with pro tools 8 seems fine but I did purchase the ozone 4 for mastering but I can use it in mono on the bass or whatever.
What would be the difference?maybe less distortion from the gain reduction?
thx

[5454stevef]

hello.I record lots of song's with as little of compression as possible.
I was wondering if I was to run the final mix through a mastering limiter at the end anyway.which I do.
Should I be overly concerned if the snare or the bass guitar get a little loud at times or vocals during mixing?.
Would it be better to squash it all during mastering.?
and also whats the big talk about certain compressors?
The digirack compressors that came with pro tools 8 seems fine but I did purchase the ozone 4 for mastering but I can use it in mono on the bass or whatever.
What would be the difference?maybe less distortion from the gain reduction?
thx

You should absolutely be concerned if something seems too loud during mixing - that's the time to correct it. Between track automation and compression, you should be able to fix most anything to your satisfaction. After it's mixed, you pretty much have what you have.

Compression after the fact won't help you here because the relative levels of all the mixed components stay the same - for example, if a vocal peak causes the compressor to kick in, it reduces the level of the entire program. So, in extreme cases the instruments may seem to fall out while the compressor is reducing the gain. Even if it's not overtly noticeable it gets tiresome to listen to.

In short, you should try to get the dynamics of your mix as close to the way you want them as you possibly can in the mix, and not expect to fix it later. A lot of people recommend using compression in stages - a little at recording, a little at mixing, maybe a little more at mastering.

Edit - one thing I've noticed about digital compression is that some of them do indeed introduce audible distortion at extreme settings in comparison to their analog counterparts. Another argument for mild compression in stages.

SF

[laboroflove]

that was what I thought.Small amounts here and there.
I am concerned with the distortioin issue.
I used to use the waves renaisance compressor but it wont work with pro tools 8.thats another issue but anyway I set up the same settings on the ren compressor and the digirack compressor and I heard more grit and distortion from the digirack compressor at the same gain reduction.
So either theres a quality issue or thats just the natural sound of both.
I anymore just compress as little as possible maybe three different times on certain instruments to retain cleanliness on tracks.
thx