Tricks To Create Headroom

When we’re building our tracks, it’s very easy to run out of headroom. Headroom, as we all know, is the amount of signal left over before our mix bus starts to clip. A healthy amount of headroom is important for many reasons and we’ll give you a couple tips on how to keep it.

WATCH THE SUB BASS.
Frequencies under 100 Hz carry the most energy in dB. Applying a high-pass filter to non-bass tracks is one way to keep these frequencies under control. On the bass tracks, cut off everything below 20 Hz. It’s inaudible and will eat up your headroom.

TURN DOWN, NOT UP.
Turn down for what? Headroom of course. When tracks are fighting for presence in a mix, we often have the inclination to start turning things up. It’s much better to instead turn down the tracks that don’t need focus. Not only will this save headroom, but it will make your mix tighter and cleaner.

These are just a couple of tips that we found most important in creating headroom in your mix. For more tips, go here.