Mastering my own track
Ehy guys. I suck mastering my own track could you tell me what i can do to improve the sound of this song?
https://soundcloud.com/calvin-campbell/c-users-andrea-desktop-gulp
I think it’s sounds too high. Or maybe not!What do you think? I used Ableton.
Thanks
You should do everything you can in the mix down stage, so if it sounds a little to high for then lower those tracks and so on. You shouldn’t be using mastering to fix something that you should have attended to in the mix down phase.
For some reason it looks like the track you posted is not currently available… tried refreshing the page but still same problem. This could be one of SC’s many site overloads.
ehy
ehy, I am so sorry!my fault…here it is
https://soundcloud.com/calvin-campbell/gulp
tell me what do you think about it.
thanks
Everything looks fairly balanced to me. I’d reduce the high end of the main synth that runs throughout, maybe drop 3-6db at 2500hz
Also I think you could have louder drums, especially with regards to the kick drum!
Finally bring your bass levels up a little, anything below 100hz can come up another 2-3 db at least.
Mastering can be a bitch to try and do yourself, not least because one of the most useful aspects of mastering is the fact your getting a second pair of ears to listen to the track and make adjustments to it fresh!
Look up multi-band compression, harmonic excitement and limiting techniques to get started 
and you can get some good results with ‘Ozone4’ - which has a lot of the stuff you need for mastering all built into one plugin.
Think it also comes with a rough guide on how to start mastering in the manual too! check the demo out, some good tips in there 
…and see if this’ll do the job for you.. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5821454/Gulp!%20[ruffMastered].wav
Definitely interesting to read up on that although I strongly advice not using harmonic excitement unless you know exactly what it does and how it works. That is because essentialy it destroys the audio and creates noise to make it sound smoother to our ears. As you could imagine applying this wrong only has negative effects. Later today I’ll run your track through some analyzers and I’ll give you some detailed tips.
I like your mastering rjw!I think it’s better to low the high level of the drum part at the initial part but I love the main bass.
Uff I just want to be able to manage the sound in a better way but for now no results.
I usually use some compresson on drums parts and some other staff on the mastering channel.
I have another question: Why if i watch to the sound wave it seems to be soooo small and not “big”, “open” as the professional one?(I know they are better than me but I just want to know why, they use something special?).
@Sanderbongertman: thanks so much. I’m waiting for them.I need it because I started two month ago to make some noise and I want to learn more and more and more
ps by the way…what do you think about the track? It totally bad or there are some parts that you almost like?
Thanks
Calvin
the size of the waveform is directly related to the volume of it, the louder the sound the bigger the waveform. Your track actually had a nice amount of headroom (that’s the empty space between your loudest peak and 0db) - if you want to have any room to work with when mastering you need to leave that space there so you’ve got room to master into.
does that make sense? i’m a bit tired today lol.
Basically your overall mix levels are good from a mastering point of view, keep 'em where they are and let the mastering bring the overall volume of your track up!
As far as the track goes there’s some cool ideas. Intro sounds good. I think you should work on a bit of a pause and build before the main bass comes in, there’s not enough definition between the sections. Even a 1 bar break (cut out some drums, add some kind of rising fx) before that main bass line section will help loads. That will make the main section sound better when it kicks in coz you’ll of generated some contrast between the intro and that bit.. does that help?
bear in mind the more tracks you make the better they’ll get so just keep at it!
Found that guide I was on about too… http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/OzoneMasteringGuide.PDF
Really thank you for your tips and time. I want to put some rising fx, like a classic reverb but in Ableton I don’t know how to use it…it sound so…so…so nothing!
ahaha
Practising I think i could learn it!
Thank you very much!!
Reverb is an effect, it needs to act on a sound… try this:
Get a snare sample.
Put a reverb on it and make it reeeeeealy long, many seconds of reverb time. 100%WET
record that sound to a new track.
Now REVERSE what you’ve just recorded.
finally position your rising reverse reverb effect wherever you think it fits, job done!
YEAH!IT WORKS!I never tought to do in that way!thanks man!!!
I am working on a remix on soundcloud, maybe in a few days I can upload it and you can take a listen if you want!
Producing 101 eh? Make sure to put a filter on it as well
Ok a filter…can you tell me why?so i can really understand how to use it and why i use it!
If it’s a real snare recording, and not a synthesized one, you’d want to put a filter on it to get rid of all the rumble the mic picked up during the recording. If you don’t then there’s going to be a lot of rumble in the reverb too and it’s just going to make your mix sound muddy.
I like your mastering rjw!I think it’s better to low the high level of the drum part at the initial part but I love the main bass.
Uff I just want to be able to manage the sound in a better way but for now no results.
I usually use some compresson on drums parts and some other staff on the mastering channel.
I have another question: Why if i watch to the sound wave it seems to be soooo small and not “big”, “open” as the professional one?(I know they are better than me but I just want to know why, they use something special?).
@Sanderbongertman: thanks so much. I’m waiting for them.I need it because I started two month ago to make some noise and I want to learn more and more and more
ps by the way…what do you think about the track? It totally bad or there are some parts that you almost like?
Thanks
Pretty good song!
I can’t really give any technical advice other than:
To get the kick drums louder, I would try layering them. Maybe adding a compressor to the synth to make the kick break through abit. This isn’t mastering persé but It helps me with some of the problems. I’m a total beginner though! 
I’m really against layering kicks to be honest, all you’re going to get is a really muddy sound, and not a crisp punchy kick you’re looking for. Taking two separate kicks and playing them at the same time is not the way to go in my opinion.
Now this isn’t the same as building a kick sound using other kicks, ala taking the low end from a kick and filtering everything above 50hz, and then taking the attack/click of another kick and filtering everything out below 110hz, and then taking the punch/character of another kick and filtering everything out below 60hz and everything above 100hz and then messing with the levels.
lots Of VST u can buy. many great reverb Vsts out there
Reverb is an effect, it needs to act on a sound… try this:
Get a snare sample.
Put a reverb on it and make it reeeeeealy long, many seconds of reverb time. 100%WET
record that sound to a new track.
Now REVERSE what you’ve just recorded.
finally position your rising reverse reverb effect wherever you think it fits, job done!
I noticed that the track sounds full / complete on my phones but not on my sets of monitors… I haven’t analyzed it but I’m almost certain that with all of the FX you’ve generated some phase cancellation issues. These can muddy up the mix because the left channel and right work in opposite phases and cancel out sounds. This doesn’t happen on phones since the left and right channels never interact. You could use an analyzer such as PAZ Pardon Our Interruption to check for this.
Cheers.