A few Questions from a newbie

Ok I have a few general questions to maybe get a feel for things. I hope you don't mind.

1. I see a few things on hard limiting where some people like it and some don't. I use it and and am wondering if I am using it correctly. WHat I do is get my statistics and try to keep the clipping statistic at a minimum. Say .002 or something like that to get my db up as high as I can without loosing anything. Is that the proper way to use hard limiting? or is there some suggestions. Also I normalize before using hard limiting as well. Is that a good idea?

2. Does anyone have a good sequence they use when mastering? I have read the Izotope Ozone user guide and seen their list but just curious if anyone does anything different.

3. Also after mixdown do you guys first do the removal of pops and clicks to clean up any unwanted noise? I have tried doing the noise reduction and just don't get it. WHen I use it I seem to loose my whole signal. Anyone have a tutorial for that?

Thanks I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along and I thank you for your help

Rich

hiya,

1. If you just want to get your sound wave as loud as possible before it clips, rather than using hard limiting, have you tried the normalise feature?
you can set a maximum level which it will amplify your volume to. make sure you tick the box which says "normalise left and right equally" (or something along those lines) if you want to preserve the stereo image of your track...

2. don't know too much about mastering, only just started trying to figure it out meself!

3. It's best to get rid of any unwanted noise/clicks before you mix down.

To use the noise reduction feature you need to select a part of your wave which has the noise and nothing else on it. open the noise reduction window capture this as a profile, close the noise reduction window. now select the whole wave and reopen the noise reduction window... use the bar in the middle (can't remember what it's labeled as) to vary the amount of noise reduction. I've found that the results vary widely depending on what sounds/noises are involved. if the noise is a steady noise throughout the track it seems to work a lot better, where as if the noise fluctuates a lot then i've found that it may knock out parts of the sound you want to keep.

i hope this is useful to you, i'm no expert myself.

oddkid