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Somebody once told me there was no such thing as a stupid question, so...

I have a solo 'band' and I record by myself. I'm well aware that when recording, you don't want to have your input levels higher than 0Db. So, taking a song I've recorded, all the individual tracks are below 0DB when played by themselves. However, with all the tracks playing and the song mixed down to a single file, the levels hit 0Db. The simple question - is this a problem?

And, perhaps this is a separate question - is it a problem if the final track's sound is as I want it?

I was considering distributing my album by myself, and I have this voice at the back of my head telling me that if I send a CD off to be pressed, they'll send it back and say "go away, this CD has levels over 0Db".

Thanks for the help.

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cfaalm Sun, 05/07/2006 - 11:54

That's summing going on there. Is this clipping a peak thing that happens every now and then or is it on-going?

If you can determine the tracks/peaks that cause the clipping then maybe you can try lowering just those peaks or use some subtle compression on those tracks.

If the clipping is on-going then lowering the master might suffice.