mastering...

DJ Software & Apps Ableton
1

mastering…

does anyone know of any really good online mastering guides… ive had a look but none seem to be what im after… my track’s almost finished just needs those little touches :slight_smile:

2

The best thing you can do is send it to some one else. They’ll have a proper listening environment, monitor system and experience and knowledge.

Mastering is honestly nothing more than Compression and filters when you get down to it. Why do you feel the need to master it though is the real question. If you’re shopping it around most labels will have their “in house” guy do it. If you just want to be able to play it out just add a limiter and adjust it accordingly (nothing drastic obviously).

And your track should be finished BEFORE you get it mastered or attempt to try it yourself.

3

@ jason - the track itself is finished composition wise, and im honestly thinking now that sending it to be mastered is the best way to go. i only started it as a way to learn ableton and have 3 labels interested in it at an unfinished stage, fingers crossed it’ll go somewhere, if not bac to the drawing board, but if i have to drop a bit of cash then thats what i’ll have to do.

cheers,

Bri

4

There are some nice video on youtube about mastering with Izotope Ozone…maybe check them out, they could be very useful :slight_smile:

5

Can we hear it?

6

haha, soon, i said to jason that i’ll get it over to him soon, we devided to change a few little peices, when thats done ill put it up.

7

My home mastering process to just see how my stuff translates once being limited goes as follows:

  1. Have Final mix and reference track in two channels next to each other.
  2. Disable solo latching so that when you hit solo on one track it cancels out the other.
  3. Match average loudness level of the reference track to the final mix with the final mix fader left untouched (lower the reference). You can do this with several different plugins out there. I use Waves PAZ analyzer.
  4. A/B the two tracks and listen for differences.
  5. if only subtle touches needed then use EQ with wide Q’s and no more than +/- 2db with your most transparent EQ
  6. if something drastically needs changing sonically then go back to the mix session and change it.
  7. check stereo image of your track vs reference. is it wide enough? whats happeing to the centre information? ie. make the mix mono. is it hard to focus on any instruments? if so then go back and create space for them.
  8. if frequency and spatialisation seem adequate enough then apply limiting to your mix after the EQ.
  9. to do this go back to your reference track and put the fader back to unity.
  10. now bring down the threshold on the limiter until your mix sounds similar in loudness with reference. use your ears! if it distorts then stop.
  11. once happy, a/b the tracks again. did the limiting destroyed the snare or kick? bass become overpowering? if you notice problems scrap it and go back to the mix.
  12. finding that the topend is too harsh? try running your mix through a tape emulation with the analog switch off and zero’d out settings.
  13. a/b once again after a 1hr break.

you should be checking this at 85dbSPL, read up on fletcher munsen curves.

this is a really really really really rough guide to home mastering in the box! there is alot more that can be done but you have the advantage of fixing the mix, a mastering engineer usually doesnt have that chance thats why they have really nice expensive gear. being able to fix the mix is more valuable than any mastering tool out there, trust me. oh and only dither at the mastering stage not the mix down, 16bit 44.1khz is CD quality standard. no plugins in mix down chain too! :slight_smile:

if you send your final mix attach your master as well so that the engineer can use it as a rough guide to what you like. ask them the format, sample rate, bit depth they would like stuff in. everyone is different.

i like the steven slate sigital FG-X mastering plugin fyi

hope this gives you something to start with. i think you can google some practice mastering songs where they give you the final product and the original mix so you can have a go yourself. cant remember which site though.

8

Bingo, get it right in the mixdown, and the mastered version will sound that much better when you get back. Mastering engineers aren’t there to “fix” any problems per se, only to bring the track to life and give it that extra little “it” the track was lacking.

9

Dark Room Mastering does a good job for me and they’re pretty inexpensive. I would suggest doing your own EQ though and then send to them for volume and compression.

10

Que? Who else would do your mixdown?

11

Music Mastering: Is there any point getting your music mastered if you’re going to distribute in MP3 format?

12

Yes…

13

Definitely

14

Here’s a pretty nice online video archive of industry professionals.
http://squarecad.net/index.html

15

Mastering music, no matter what format, is a finalisation process that allows your song to be competitive with the rest of the music available that is similar in genre and stylistic qualities. It is more importantly though a process that checks your mixes so that they will translate best to any system they get played on.