Hi guys

My suggestion, for those of us who want to learn more about mastering and improve.

1) Someone provides us with a free track that well all work on. It should be a mix of real instruments and synthesized ones perhaps so we can work on both worlds

2) We each upload our versions to some shared soundcloud club (or whatever you call it)

3) We may use only free plug-ins

4) Winner is the one who meets objectives which are still to be decided
Perhaps 1) Loudness 2) Clarity 3) Balance

5) The winner wins nothing. Otherwise I think it will lose it's fun element.

We can have different mastering requirements, like

Transparent
Transparent but Uber hot
Absurdly loud i.e. almost loud enough for teenagers

What do you guys think?


Here is a free gear list:

Compressors & Limiters:
RoughRider
DSP NightShine
Ferric TDS
VOS Density Mk3
VOS Thrillseekers
fxpansion freecomp
JSCompShaper
TDR Feedback Compressor
Gcomp
Toneboosters Broadcast
Vlad Limiter6
Vlad Molot
Sir Elliot limiter

EQ:
VOS Baxter
VOS BootEQ
Spline EQ
Nyquist
Voxengo Marvel EQ
Sir Elliot 31 band EQ

Stereo and Mid/Side:
Voxengo MSED
Stereo Tool by Flux

Tools: (Scopes and meters)
RS-Met Signal Analyzer
The Scope
Sonalksis Free G Stereo
Last edited by Aiynzahev on Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:53 pm; edited 2 times in total

sounds good idea, plus people can get free mastering done as well

Yes good point.

We could choose one track at a time. 1 month I feel is too long, perhaps we could do 2 per month.

Edit- because this is about learning mastering, it is hoped that people will divulge their techniques. I don't know if we should insist on it though?

You know what, your track in your sig might be alright for the task. It's got a few different elements.

Now all thats needed is some tracks, and particpants who might be interested, there was one person asking for help with a full albums worth not long back so that would be a good place to start.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5015704#501570 4

this is the thread from today, might want to pm the guy and see what he thinks, Im sure he would be interested to get a few tracks mastered for free.

edit

You guys need an MP3 or WAV file? or stems? I would love to have one of my track mastered especially "A Night in Serengeti". It's the first song in the "My Full Album" link below. Possible?

I might be able to provide an interesting challenge, and it is as follows: can any of you get a track to work that has both full and strong instrument bass elements as well as a really big kick drum sound?

I would upload it as separate stems.

I would also be quite interested in such a challenge.
Mainly to improve mixing/mastering skills

stems would be best I guess.

It was mr aiynzahevs ideas so I would recommend sending him a PM and see what he thinks, thanks for the interest though, appreciated, so this thing will probably take off, if you want to upload a file post it, ill sure have a go if you want.

A nice and interesting post about mastering. And also, an altruistic one. Thanks.

We could share also tricks, pics, even videos and tutorials, what free tools to use, and comparison between tracks, what people wants, if they prefer super loudness, or something more normal but clean, etc.

I need to improve my mastering skills too. That's why i'm interested on this.

Have a good day guys

We are olbiged to use free plugins? Too bad, I like stuff like fabfilter pro-L for mastering but what freeware can compete with that? The result would be inferior in comparison with some pro plugins...

Inferior? I don't think so. The correct tool in the correct hands can do "miracles" too.
And also, a powerful commercial compressor in the bad hands will do poor tracks too.
What we want to do is to give info about what or how you can improve your tracks with affordable tools. So, in this way, most people will learn how to make a proper track.

If we use commercial plugins for this purpose, there will be people who won't be able to learn due to the money. Me for example.
I think the real challenge is to make good mastering tracks with good quality just with free stuff.
This is the most important thing, and i think it is possible.

We are not going or do not want to prove that free stuff are more powerful than commercial or things like this, but i think the usage of freebies for this mastering purpose will make people with less economical acquisition to be able to do nice stuff and more quality tracks, also to recreate tutorials without problems.
Not all compressor, EQs or limiters sounds exactly the same or have the same buttons.

I'm in, i will try to help with some tricks when i have time.

Have a good day
Last edited by IrionDaRonin on Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:45 am; edited 1 time in total

pretty cool idea! I feel that i'm not ready yet to a mastering challenge, but I will folow you guys closely and try to learn the most of you