help with basic mastering on soundforge 8

[A.E.N.E.A]

any tips? I have absolutely no idea where to start but I understand I have to compress the sound file by some amount..any advice would be a great help

thanks people

[Sefyu]

First, look up what MASTERGIN REALLY IS

YOU can't master, you can mix, but not master.

Google some tutorials on google about making your sound better with EQ, Compressors etc.

[A.E.N.E.A]

thanks for reply, have been looking for info online on mastering and was told that I could use soundforge for mastering. Anyways I guess im just trying to level out the sound so that I get more consistency on my tracks (no random fluctuations in volume and frequency etc.) and limit the tracks to "sound good" on various systems.

[Jbravo]

This document is one a lot of people/newbies to go to for the lowdown on Mastering

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/o ... gGuide.PDF

[A.E.N.E.A]

This document is one a lot of people/newbies to go to for the lowdown on Mastering

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/o ... gGuide.PDF

thanks alot!!

[LXNDR1]

yes with SF you CAN master, not in a pro way of course, but u can make ya music sound decent frequencies and loudness wise, provided u got an already decent sounding mix
for this u gonna need a couple of DX plugin packs (Wavelab for comparison supports also VST)
dunno maybe SF native plugins are really ok but i don't use them for mastering apart from maybe WaveHammer, i use mostly Waves
so i can tell what i do and i don't mean this is the only way of doing it:
1) normalize the file, if some peaks are too high and it's not getting normalized to the extent i'd like to, i'd manually reduce them with Volume tool under high resolution so their amplitude is close to the bulk of the material and normalize again, while normalizing i constantly check the Statistics for RMS value, it should be tending towards -10, the closer the better
2) apply EQ, just to tweak mostly hi and lo ends and remove muddiness, i like 10 band EQ so i feel i have better control, eq'ing monitor the master volume, if it starts clipping reduce the output volume of the plugin
3) if i feel like it, i'd put some enhancer like DSP FX Aural Activator to add harmonics and make the material a bit more juicy and clear
4) compress, occasionally with WaveHammer, but with Volume Maximizer disabled cause it really squashes what is left from the dinamics in the process of compression and destroys snares and kicks punch, at this i ignore clipping as long as it doesn't sound distorted and overcompressed
5) check the RMS, i strive to -11, -10 balancing between the achieved value and the quality and the percieved loudness of the sound, if feeling there's some more room i'd compress harder
that's basically it
for better resolution for processing it's better to have your mixdown in 24 bit and at least at 48 kHz sample rate, it means bigger file though, before saving the file make sure to convert it into 16 bit if u plan to burn it to a CD as audio

it's worth to point out that i do hip hop so the compression and eq'ing methods might not suit your style

[A.E.N.E.A]

thanks for that, ill be giving this a go tomorrow, howver i cant find the "compression" effect in the list on sound forge8, or is it not called that on SF?

[LXNDR1]

it's under clause 4) - WaveHammer, i hope they didn't drop it from SF 8

[A.E.N.E.A]

it's under clause 4) - WaveHammer, i hope they didn't drop it from SF 8

yeah im hoping that too, Ill have a look tonight...

[A.E.N.E.A]

I think they may have taken it out of sf 8, cant find wave hammer either

[MaliceX]

Wave hammer's there dude. It should be on either Process or Effects. Look on the help and search where to find "Wave Hammer."