Nomalizing before or after main mixdown

Cubentrix · Joined: May 01, 2005 Posts: 10 Location: PA

Hello,
Does anyone have tips on where to use normalizing in the mixing process? For my last album I normalized the final mixdown. Should I do this to each individual track before I mix them into the main track? Thanks

elektro80 · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:19 am Post subject:

Normal procedure is recording each track/channel so that the main beef is around -18 to -15 dB. Peaks are fine though.. we are talking the main body of the signal here. Main premaster mixdown is normally the same level, but some will be making the signal a bit denser at this stage and it is not unusal to see mixes with the main beef upped to say -12 to -8. This is a bit hot and usually means you have been compressing stuff you should have left alone. Your mastering engineer will do the normalizing later on anyway.