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Beyond compression

The fundamental tool for all loudness-maximising tasks is still the humble compressor, and most fully-featured models can usually function as limiters as well, as long as both the attack and release times can be set to ultra-short values. However, compression is not the only tool available to you. If you've got a song that has both quiet and loud sections, don't be shy to use automation in your sequencer to push up the master mix volume in the quieter sections. If you place your main mix compressor after this mix-volume fader, then these quieter sections will benefit from the mix compression too.

Bear in mind that the ultimate goal is, more often than not, perceived loudness rather than technical loudness, and perceived loudness is very much an illusion. The careful use of different ambient effects used in contrast to one another can create the illusion of a massive soundscape, provided they're not used for extended periods of time. This is used to great effect on many dance records - listen to tracks by Faithless or Deep Dish for some amazing examples. By contrasting relatively dry verse/rhythm patterns with screamingly bright-sounding lead synth lines in the chorus - normally quite swamped with reverb and delay effects - the entire song will seem to take on an entirely different size in the chorus sections compared to the verses.

Similarly, brightness itself tends to suggest loudness, and while simply boosting the top end of tracks often leads to mixes that sound weak and thin, a subtle, narrow boost at around 3-4kHz can greatly lift a track above the perceived level of those played either side of it. This is an old trick that's been used for many years when releasing a 'radio mix' for broadcast.

After carefully compressing your track, equalising it to sound brighter, and then pushing it as hard into a limiter as it can reasonably go before it starts to sound over-processed, there is one final trick - and that's to use dedicated maximising software, such as Waves' renowned Maxx Bass and L2 Ultramaximizer plug-ins, which use their own secret bag of techniques for the ultimate in extreme levels.

Absolute zero

You'll probably have read about the importance of not overloading digital sound systems - while analogue systems gradually and smoothly distort, digital systems can sound awful when they hit their absolute maximum. However, the latest digital audio converters can be surprisingly forgiving of the occasional peak transgressing the limit, so don't immediately panic if you get the occasional 'red light' during recording or mixdown, provided that it doesn't sound noticeably bad.

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