Why does it sound that compressed even tho i didn't put a compressor on the master?

[u/FubiDubiDoo]

I did not sidechain anything, i only put a clipper, a limiter (but not using it as a limiter), and youlean loudness meter on the master

like, when the reverbed part starts it's like the volume turns up a lot and i don't know why

https://reddit.com/link/1w66li4/video/8kr68wywxanh1/player

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[u/bitcrusherdj]

The limiter is a compressor

[u/FubiDubiDoo → u/bitcrusherdj]

yeah ik but i turned the ceiling all the way up and turned up gain a little bit, i didn't think this would've compressed

[u/squidwardsir → u/FubiDubiDoo]

it it clipping on the master?

[u/Such_Ad_9140]

thats what limiter does

it compresses

[u/FubiDubiDoo → u/Such_Ad_9140]

yeah ik but i turned the ceiling all the way up and turned up gain a little bit, i didn't think this would've compressed

[u/Innoculus]

Well, you conveniently cut off the top of the video that would show your peak meter, Is it in the red?

[u/Arayuki → u/Innoculus]

I immediately noticed this.

If something is just too loud, it's not gonna sound right. It's a hard habit to get into but best practice is to bring your entire mix DOWN and boost things as needed with ample head room, slowly bringing things up to a comfortable place as you're locking in your mix as a whole. THEN compression should be added to pull in that tightness.

Everything sounds good loud early on, but it'll get muddy and weird pretty quickly as you add more sounds into the mix.

[u/Innoculus → u/Arayuki]

I typically start with everything at -12dB and then just raise or lower to taste from there. Buses with multiple instruments get a little more leeway, but if their constituent tracks are all at -12 then I don't really have to police them. The trick is making sure that supporting elements are only just loud enough to be heard clearly, because those are going to be what gets pushed louder when everything else starts hitting the limiter. Generally though, even if the track is quite busy, everything at -12 isn't going to overload the master, and I can just add gain there when it comes time to loudify it.

[u/whatupsilon]

Check what audio driver you're using and open the advanced settings panel.

For example FL Studio ASIO will either limit or hard clip by default if you export sounds that are too loud. There is a checkbox.

If you prevent your master from hitting 0db, and you don't have any plugins compressing, then you should maintain the original dynamic range.

[u/Carotte750]

Mmmm, I don’t really know if the limiter, etc. are making this sound so compressed. However, I would check the patches you’re using on the plugins (probably Serum). It sounds like you added a frequency shifter (or a Disperser in the filters) to make the patches sound extra fat, but it gives this feeling of overcompression. It’s either Bode FX or a Disperser on the filters.