Hi. Newbie…just started Next Level Mixing. So I put a Pro L on my mix buss. But my levels are all pretty low (I would say balanced 
and when i put the Pro L on I can certainly get more loudness…but it doesn’t actually appear to be “limiting” anything…I just get more volume. If I crank the gain way up it will limit but my levels are way too hot by then. Am I doing something wrong? Is the limiter adding something besides loudness even if it’s not limiting (meaning I don’t see any gain reduction)? Thanks!
No gain reduction = 1:1 transfer curve, that means you are just increasing gain, not affecting the signal in any other way.
A lot of people recommend you mix peaking around -6 dBFS on the mix bus, which is great advice but if your a a man who prefers your LUFS, then I recommend 14/12 LU in the loudest sections, this range sounds the best when using analogue emulations in my experience, which are typically internally calibrated to -12, -16 or -18 dB.
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Hi Paul…I have to admit…I have no idea what you are talking about…I expect I’ll learn about LUFS as I progress in the program! But thanks anyway.
Try holding down the option key when you turn up the gain, it will inversely turn down the output gain so you can actually get to some limiting…let me know how that goes…
hi danny. on my mac/Pro Tools holding option down while adjusting gain didn’t do anything. but i did manually set the output gain at -13 db (v. the -2 you recommend) so that i could push the gain of the unit higher to induce limiting. is this the same net result you were recommending? i think i’m doing something wrong because i’m not sure the output gain should be so far reduced. maybe you can give a quick refresh in class on tuesday? thanks!
@derekjuan, in most of my ProL instances, the input gain and output gain are matched (and always used), so gain of 23 will mean output of -23. This means (i think from what i hear) that i am not changing the overall peak, but getting less dynamics, therefore increasing overall loudness. On my individual channels, i do have some at -28 to get more limiting where it improves the sound, but not crushes it. It is normally the transient that it is pushing down.
If you have -13 out and 30 gain in with still no limiting, that sounds like the individual channels need to be going in higher. If you have everything perfectly balanced and dont want to go back through all channels, you could just increase the mixbuss input gain. However; Where are the needles on the console and tape saturation on the mix buss? Are they dancing in the middle? If so and ProL is still not getting enough, I am not sure why. To fix, you could use a plug in to boost their volume after the saturation or you will kill that part.
Hope this helps mate…