Mastering. fx

[pHz]

im tellin zoe!

and im telling the rabbyt youre quothing

slainte rob

[Sascha Franck]

I would like to add that there is no "right" or "wrong" to all this story, but I defenitely find my mixes (or what I use to call "mixes") to sound a lot better when I do them without any mastering effects while working/mixing.

Mastering FX just don't do any good before you haven't fixed your source material. You just won't detect all the little annoyances anymore.

Let's have an example: You have a snare peaking at some frequency that you won't even notice much without any compression. Still, this snare will make your master peak over 0dB if levelled adequately loud.
Now, let's assume you're running this snare in your song with some master compression going on. What will happen? Right, the compressor will kick in as soon as the snare level exceeds the compressor's threshold level.
At the same time anything else will be compressed as well - just because the almost un-hearable snare peak triggered your compressor.
That's something you surely don't want - the whole thing starting to compress or even pump (in a bad way) just because of a little annoying peak coming from the snare.
Now, with that compressor on the master straight from the start, you won't perhaps even notice there's something causing a > 0dN peak. Without it you would and would rather try to find out which channel it was and fix it on a per channel base, rather than affecting all your mix.

In case you'd be using a limiter rather than a compressor and in case there's really just very little peaks over 0dB, everything would be not as bad - but it will still keep you away from taking care about the source of all your trouble.

No matter how you put it, sorting out source tracks and their possible conflicts is the first thing you want to do to achieve properly sounding results.
When done with that you can usually pull up your master again for quite some dBs - without ANY master compression!

As said before, I usually insert a very moderate limiter on the master out to get those last clip-causing peaks (that might've slipped through or couldn't be sorted) out. But (again as said), this should only be VERY few things. The basic issues should be sorted out before doing so.
In short: The mix should sound identical with or without the limiter (I'm crosslistening to both versions by compensating volumes via my amp level). The only thing you should get from this is a somewhat higher average level, while the limiter would only sort out peaks that are barely noticeable ny ear.

Regarding other mastering FX, almost the same applies. Something's causing trouble with your high mid range and tends to blow your ears out? OK, DON'T insert a master EQ but try to find out what's the source of that trouble. It might be your lead sound - but why filter those frequencies out on the master when they're needed for other instruments?

Allright, when done with all this, it wouldn't make much of a difference anymore whether I'd continue to master in my host or export the file and master with something else.
But (again as said before), for several reasons of convenience, I prefer to master in another app, just having to deal with a single stereo wave file.

Apart from all that, I am lousy at both mixing and mastering, but nonetheless, taking care about all those things mentioned above has certainly improved my mixes.

[Sicklecell666]

Apart from all that, I am lousy at both mixing and mastering, but nonetheless, taking care about all those things mentioned above has certainly improved my mixes.

Just goes to show that even with good working practices like what you outlined you can still suck at it

[rSphere]

i think another angle (if no one has already mentioned this) is that if mastering an entire cd - it's great to master all the tracks in a single project - lined up vertically.

this way you are constantly referencing back to previous mixes and imported reference mixes (key!).

you mute the tracks you're not working on - to save processor - which leaves the whole processor open for each track.

on my p4 3.0 800fsb system even with UAD - i will frequently get up to 60-70% on the processer per track. so i'd never be able to do this on the 2 bus.

[CypherOne]

Apart from all that, I am lousy at both mixing and mastering, but nonetheless, taking care about all those things mentioned above has certainly improved my mixes.

Just goes to show that even with good working practices like what you outlined you can still suck at it

[ouroboros]

--edit

[buhanan]

my personal process is as follows (keep in mind, i work in rock music primarily, a lot of real instruments):

1. FINISH YOUR MIX. try to avoid having too much more than a 6db volume difference, and pay attention to L and R volumes. the more even they are, the better. the better mixdown you are working with, the better master you will end up with. don't waste time polishing a turd.

2. MIX IT DOWN. i don't run mastering in-bus. it's just too much for my processor to load, and easier to A-B different possible signal chains.

3. MAKE SEVERAL POSSIBILITIES. come at your master with a couple of different ways. do a quick job, play with it for a while, then save it. come back to it the next day and try something new without having listened to what you did before. i do this three times before coming back to really decide which technique sounds best for the song. my typical signal chain is as follows:

EQ (maybe) -> compressor (2:1 ratio) -> reverb (maybe) -> exciter (a little bit of drive) -> limiter

some songs will sound better with the entire spectrum maximized, and others you'll want to do single-band. try both and listen to each a few days later. or come up with several one-touch signal chains that you can run out, and build a few mastering templates to start with.

4. PERFORM YOUR MASTER. particularly in rock, you may want parts of a song more saturated than others. i often turn the 'knobs' of my exciter, compressor and sometimes even the limiter during the mastering process. any host with easy automation can help you do this. i like to bind the common knobs to my oxygen8 and then play the song, performing the master as it goes. then i go back into the recorded mastering performance for tweaks before the final rendering is done.

5. TAKE A BREAK. stop listening to it for a day or two. then come back and listen to the mix vs. the master. often you will find in mastering that something that was buried where you want it in the mix will be far more (or less) prominent once mastered. if you find this happening a lot and are using a multiband-limiter, try setting it to single-band mode. distance can be important.

6. USE LOTS OF LISTENING ENVIRONMENTS. carry a CD around with you of the latest mixes. if you work somewhere, listen on the crappy computer speakers. listen on a boom box. listen on some decent stereo speakers. listen in your friends car. listen on your studio headphones. listen in earbuds. you are going to have to average the possible listening environments, but remember how your audience listens to music. most people will be on home stereos, earbuds / ipods, and in their car. don't hole yourself away in a studio with expensive monitors, because only WE hear in those forgiving environments.

[jens]

Apart from all that, I am lousy at both mixing and mastering, but nonetheless, taking care about all those things mentioned above has certainly improved my mixes.

Just goes to show that even with good working practices like what you outlined you can still suck at it

it's all relative, isn't it?

[jens]

lots of great tips, Buhanan! - Thanks!

[Glassback]

b.t.w.: I know your machine )

no, no, no, no, no you don't.


my machine had a very serious upgrade shortly after you left.
it needed it.




anyway, sorry for derailing ancoats' threads with an Orion Masterclass.

I've shifted the potential to continue with that discussion over here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77838


And thanks for the great tips people - and the idea for that thread.

[jens]

b.t.w.: I know your machine )

no, no, no, no, no you don't.


my machine had a very serious upgrade shortly after you left.
it needed it.

good to know - indeed it needed it

I remember trying to play a fast keyboard-solo with a latency of about 50ms

[Hunter]

oh and I'm famed for my clean mixes.

Quite a claim young man!!!!

[popsych]

If I master in Orion is there any need to Normalize and Hard Limit in Cool Edit?

Not really if you have the levels set properly which is a bitch in Orion, imo, but if you export at a higher level than 44.1 you'll need to dither in order to burn to disk.

I just see no reason to cram 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag, myself..

Changing the samplerate eg 96khz to 44.1 khz does not involve dither but it's called upsampling/downsampling , in our example downsampling. Dither is involved when reducing bit depth.

Not being a smart-a** just indicating some stuff

[tomac]

You may need some compression, but you should always dither (post fader). It brings clarity to your mix, thereby making it that much easier to master your session. I use nuendo for recording and wavelab for mixing. It's a great combo.

[CypherOne]

oh and I'm famed for my clean mixes.

Quite a claim young man!!!!

0h okay, not famed. Someone said it once in passing.