New Mastering Challenge - May 2013

VST, AU, AAX, CLAP, etc. Plugin Virtual Effects Discussion
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Davias wrote:Sorry if I say something stupid but if FL parametric EQ and FL Limiter are freebies I would be glad to have them :)
No, these are not freebies, but everyone have a parametric EQ and a normal compressor in their daw, right?

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Cool, I get your reasoning, I just think what you've done sounds very heavy handed. I don't think I've ever done more than +/- 0.6dB on either the Mid OR the Side. First rule of mastering: Do No Harm! Looking forward to hearing it though!
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darkflame23 wrote:Cool, I get your reasoning, I just think what you've done sounds very heavy handed. I don't think I've ever done more than +/- 0.6dB on either the Mid OR the Side. First rule of mastering: Do No Harm! Looking forward to hearing it though!
No problem man.
I just did the mastering heavy handed as you said, just because it sounded very very very subtle. I'm more accustomed to make mastering with less headroom, so this mastering needed a bit more weight, that's basically why i did it the hard way.

Again, i'm not a pro, and i'm glad to be learning everyday about mastering, with my mistakes and with my successes.
I hope people can show me the way when listening to my music.

Have a nice day :)
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bmanic wrote:I also noticed that there seems to be a running resonance around 2316hz which helps when it's reduced a bit (I used Equilibrium set to the Neve88 model and a Q of 20 with 6dB of negative gain to notch it out). Am I hearing things that aren't there?
No, i hear it too...if what you are talking about is in part what makes the string-part of the guitar-sound so piercing and unpleasant.

I think you have tamed it very nicely on this without killing the vocal too much...i have tried myself, but couldnt find a spot where both sound good.

I like this. Perhaps heavy-handed, but its worth it because the string-part of the guitar in the original sound really unpleasant to me for some reason.

Its all in the 6 dB cut you mentioned, or is there some mid/side-trickery going on too?
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The removal of the resonance was simply the deep cut with a very narrow Q on the Neve 88 model in Equilibrium. The Neve 88 is a progressive Q kind of EQ which means that the more you cut, the narrower it gets. I found this worked very well for taming the resonance without sucking too much life out of the vocals.

There's no big trickery with this master.. pretty basic balancing of EQ and compression. I then softened the overall transients using Pro-L, which was set to "allround" algorithm with a long look-a-head (around 4ms).

Cheers!
bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle
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Not sure I got it, I did one but should I use freebies only?
If the answer is no, I've mine ready for uploading...
If it is yes, I could send it to the OP for a listen if he is interested at all :P
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https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/894 ... aster.flac

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/894 ... Master.mp3


Wavelab->
- Nebula EQ
- Nebula Comp
- Nebula Console out
- Nebula Tape
- TLsmaximizer

Cheers
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Well, I happened to to master this, in 4 steps, but 3 of them are hardware. So use it for reference if you want since it's by far the best sounding version (frequency balance, dynamics, ovrall):

Shy's master
"Music is spiritual. The music business is not." - Claudio Monteverdi
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Well, ok, here is my heavy-handed one :)

QS_master

Needs level-matching...

Three plugins, no limiter.
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Shy wrote:Well, I happened to to master this, in 4 steps, but 3 of them are hardware. So use it for reference if you want since it's by far the best sounding version (frequency balance, dynamics, ovrall):

Shy's master
Haha! Modest as ever Shy. So I take it that you do not believe in subjective opinion when it comes to tweaking choices? :D

EDIT: You didn't stick to the loudness rules though, yours is quite a bit hotter than anything else posted. And having now listened to it I must say that the tonal balance is excellent, except you missed the resonance at around 2300hz (2316Hz to be exact) making it sound harder than it should sound.

In general I think your master suffers from the same issue my first attempt has, it's a bit "splashy" with the guitars which means it gets quite fatiguing to listen to. Perhaps cut the splashy guitar transients a bit with a faster attack setting on the compressor? I know you have the Algorithmix compressor which could deal with the issue completely transparently. Of course the extra 4dB of RMS volume on your master makes it automatically MUCH more fatiguing to listen to than for instance darkflame23's master (which is also completely hardware except limiter).

So in this context, within the rules, I'd have to disagree with you. Your master is tonally very well balanced but it's too harsh compared to some of the others. Most of it is probably caused by the loudness difference and hence distortion (you have for instance up to +0.6dBFS inter sample overs which cause clear distortion on this laptop's DAC). Drop the level and you probably have the strongest master if everybody else's subjective opinion matches mine. :hihi:

Cheers!
bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle
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I haven't really read the rules, I did that one before checking this thread. "Subjective opinion" blah blah. Yeah, I'm modest only when I need to be. I disagree about the resonance at ~2300Hz, there's no way to do this differently without ruining the overall balance and getting a "weak" mix, and about the loudness, there's no fatigue caused by my limiting, at all. DAC being unable to handle it, yeah, reduce playback level a bit if you think it's a real issue, I just normalized it quickly. The splashiness of the guitar is there to stay, there's no way around it, unless you want a weird sounding mix. All in all, I'd say I got the best balance and good sound to fatigue ratio.
Yes, opinions. I'm an asshole, etc. Enjoy.
"Music is spiritual. The music business is not." - Claudio Monteverdi
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Have you actually listened to all the others posted so far to compare? I see lots of hyperbole and hubris in your posts, so am hoping your master lives up to that when I take a listen on the 20th... :) Looking forward to hearing it!
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I can understand your concerns, darkflame, but the reason I don't mind them is that my "master" is the best one available. I also know that this very post looks funny on its own, glad if you enjoy that. I'm funny like that.
I would have used different mics to record the voice and guitar to not get those all too common deficiencies, but what can you do, gotta work with what's available.
"Music is spiritual. The music business is not." - Claudio Monteverdi
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IrionDaRonin wrote:
Davias wrote:Sorry if I say something stupid but if FL parametric EQ and FL Limiter are freebies I would be glad to have them :)
No, these are not freebies, but everyone have a parametric EQ and a normal compressor in their daw, right?

...
Indeed. But I think that these two are more than normal in my memories ;)
Especially the EQ with his graphic representation so useful ^^

But I understand your point ;)
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AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.
http://goo.gl/AvFf6 (http://goo.gl/AvFf6)

(Sorry for the error with link previously, this works)

It was fun doing it. Opinions most welcome. :)
Cheers.
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