Production Q&A #8

[Tarekith]

Just posted Production Q&A #8 to my blog:

http://tarekith.com/production-qa-8/

This time I cover how to make songs longer, what RMS levels to aim for in a mixdown, and the differences between DJing club and downtempo music.

[Maven]

Would you like to answer questions if we ask them here Tarekith?

[elliot1106]

Looks like a good read, nice to see text instead of a video, I think I learn better this way!

[Tarekith]

Sure, though typically I just save them until i can answer a few at once (and until I have the time, busy busy lately).

[JasonBay]

Looks like a good read, nice to see text instead of a video, I think I learn better this way!

Same here, I think I get more from reading it as I can go back an re-read stuff again and reference it easier instead of waiting for a video to load everytime

[ThinkAboutIt]

What I wanna criticize is your white colour on your page is really hurts my eyes. I'm having trouble reading them unless I decrease my screen brightness :/

[Tarekith]

Don't be a pixel racist man, that's not cool.

[Maven]

I was wondering what are the pros and cons of producing with a mastering chain on, or do the traditional mastering, as you master the .wav file?

My second question is, I know it is always better to send out your tracks to mastering due to fresh ears of the engineer, better equipment and years of experience. However I do not have that amount of cash right now so I was wondering if we are going to master the songs by ourselves, is it better to master with good pair of headphones or monitors(room is not treated for anything)?

[Tarekith]

I was wondering what are the pros and cons of producing with a mastering chain on, or do the traditional mastering, as you master the .wav file?

>>> The downside of producing with a mastering chain on is that you tend to strt worrying about the overall volume of the song way to early in the process IMVHO. When you're just writing the track, you don't need to worry about that yet, there's more important things you should be focusing on like balancing between instruments. IMVHO it's much harder to just mixdown changes when everything is already getting compressed and limited.

Also, because it will be compressed and limited while you work on it, it's more likely to be fatigueing to your ear a lot earlier too. That means shorter working sessions before you start to lose the precious objectivity required when producing. That's just my opinion though, I know some people do it and it doesn't bother them. <<<

My second question is, I know it is always better to send out your tracks to mastering due to fresh ears of the engineer, better equipment and years of experience. However I do not have that amount of cash right now so I was wondering if we are going to master the songs by ourselves, is it better to master with good pair of headphones or monitors(room is not treated for anything)?

>>> Good headphones are nice for checking your mix on different playback systems, or for when you need to work at night at lower volumes. The downside of headphones is that the it can really mess up a lot of the spatial information from things like reverbs and delays, causing you to add more than you need.

I would never recommend headphones over monitors for critical tasks like mastering or a mixdown. Then again, for some people it's the only option they have, and through a lot of trial and error they manage to turn ok pretty decent results. But ideally you really do want some monitors so you can hear what your music sounds like "in a real room", which has more impact than I think a lot of people realize. <<<

[Maven]

Thanks a lot Tarekith, Hopefully once I settle my job and things for the next school year, I can actually get my songs mastered by the professional engineers in the forum.