Tips for mastering quite tracks with no drums

[VagifAbilov]

Hello,

I consider myself a noob in mastering, and I am aware that the best way to get decent mastering is to hire a professional. But having music as my hobby I often enjoy going through all phases of music production process. This is why I recently started mastering my tracks.

And I must say results were not so bad. I watched a very good course on mastering with Cubase and for majority of my tracks the tips from that course helped me to get decent sound. The tips are about using compressor, applying EQ to the final mix and of course loudness maximizer. All good.

However I recently tried to master a song with rather delicate sound, relatively quite with no drums - just piano, vocal with some percussions in the middle. And I am not sure that the mastered sound is better than the unmastered mix. I know that EQ settings that I usually apply beef up low and high ends which maximizes first of all drums, hi-hat and cymbals. So perhaps I should focus on something else.

Is there any common technique when mastering such tracks? Thanks for tips.

Vagif

[Tarekith]

Generally you want to only apply any processing because you hear a need for it, so applying EQ that you don't hear a need for definitely might be making things worse. If you think the raw mix sounds fine, and it's loud enough for you, by all means call that the master

[VagifAbilov]

Thanks Erik, this makes sense of course. But should I care about maximizing loudness of such songs? Should I try applying any compression? I know the answer "it depends", but rhythmic songs often have a common pattern of mastering and I wonder if there is some common technique with piano+vocal songs.

[Tarekith]

Nope, like I said, if you don't hear the need for something (ie, it's too quiet), then don't do anything Gentle limiting will get you louder if you need it, but otherwise don't do it just because.

[VagifAbilov]

Thanks again.