Lowering all the faders sounds good?

[alchemist]

You might find this interesting.

I got a rough mix going in SS. A VERY compressed rock mix, like the stuff you hear on the radio. Let's call this the "original" mix.

Everything is fine so far.

So I select all the channels and pull all the faders down. An exaggerated amount, like 30 or more dB. Just a teeny bit of signal showing in the meters. Then, I compensate the volume loss by pulling the main buss fader upwards.

Suddenly, my mix sounds "nicer". It was sounding pretty good before, but after moving all the faders down the mix sounds more "glued" than the original mix.

I don't know what it is. It may be a loss of resoultion, bit depth, increased distortion ... something. But it sounds good.

And yes, when comparing, I compensated for loudness.

Can anyone confirm this?

Any theories of what is going on math-wise?

[Jay Q]

Could you please post samples of both mixes?

Jay

[Mark Stebbeds]

Does the master fader indicate the same output level after the adjustment?

[UpTilDawn]

Are you running the Levelizer (or something like it) on the post master output? Do you compensate for the lower hit the levelizer receives if you do?

DanT

[Bob L]

You may also be saturating individual channels and overdriving plugins... therefore when the channels are lowered, you may be stopping some clipping activity.

Otherwise... your results pretty much blow any theories about bit resolution. :)

For each 6db you lower the signal you give up another bit... so you are dropping down into the 12-13 bit resolution arena.

Bob L