+3dbs to +6dbs of headroom is the standard recommended amount, but many times a song with more or a little less headroom can still be mastered with no problems.
But, it really makes no sense to give a mastering engineer a mix with 0dbs of headroom and risk the chance that it’s slightly distorted. There’s no reason to do it because overall song volume is done in the mastering process, not in mixing.
Note – It doesn’t matter what DAW software you use FL Studio, Pro Tools, Logic, Reason, Cubase, Sonar or Ableton, the headroom examples and instructions apply to all of them.
How to set mixing levels for each instrument is a question I see all over the Internet. I’m going to explain exactly how to set mixing levels in this article.Â
Whether it’s six pack abs by working out only 5 minutes a day or losing 100 lbs in a month by taking a pill miracle pill, everyone’s always looking for the fast and easy way to achieve great results!
Well, the same goes for mixing and mastering. “Just give me a chart with the best db levels for music mixing for each instrument, and I can set all 15 instrument levels perfectly in 10 minutes.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Not even close!
