I don't know where to start!

P

PhilLondon

New member
I've been reading a lot and learning to mix for the last 6 months, and people here who have heard my stuff are telling me that it's sounding okay.

I am learning stuff all the time and I also know that I know very little about the art of mixing. I am mixing low with an aim to send my completed mixes to a mastering house when I've recorded enough tracks.

But I'd like to be able to have a bit of a go myself, mainly just so that I can tighten the mixes up and increase the volume so that when I show people and post stuff online it doesn't sound low in volume and stuff.

I use Logic Pro X. What I've been doing as a mastering phase is literally adding a Mastering setting on the Output meter and bringing the master fader up. Some mixes sound loud, some sound lower than others. But it's also going into the red and essentially clipping (although not really audible) but if I don't do this they sound really low.

So, I'd like to learn how to do a poor mans master, but I don't know where to do it, in a new track? Also I'd like to be able to make all the tracks the same volume. All this stuff.

I don't know where to start and some help would be amazing. Thanks.
 
Maybe try JD Young's Noiz Lab suite (He's been posting it in the forums lately). I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet, but it looks like it could be a decent intro to mastering class complete w/ tools. (I'll go through it next time I have a project ready to master but not important enough to send to Massive)
 
Adding a master setting on the meter? That doesn't make sense.

If you are inserting some sort of mastering plugin on the output buss, that's fine. But turning up the master fader isn't the way to get it done. The master fader is after any insert. You need to turn the volume up before the insert.

Find a mastering limiter plugin and insert it on the master buss. Lower the threshold until it is loud enough. Job done, as far as just volume goes.
 
If you want to give it a go yourself, ..after you have the mixes sounding as good as humanly possible, I'd get in the habit of creating separate sessions just for the mastering and consider it a separate process. Trying to do mastering on the bus of the mix session can be a bit futile when it comes to trying to get cohesion between a group of songs and I can pretty much guarantee none of the records in your collection were done that way.

You can do a session per song or create a session for a group of songs, but your settings will/should be different for each individual song.

Eq and limiting should be your main tools to start with, but since you're doing the mixing and mastering in the same room with the same ears, you shouldn't need too much eq beyond some minor touch-up or tilt,.. but .. if you find yourself needing gobs, I'd revisit the mix and address any eq issues within the tracks. .. Once you have the eq sorted, you're basically using compression/limiting to manipulate the dynamic range and bring the level up with the least amount of damage possible and match the songs to one another. Using your ears to judge should be your best bet as you'll get better the more you do it and develop your critical listening skills and as you can upgrade your monitoring chain/environment along the way.. gl
 
Farview said:
Adding a master setting on the meter? That doesn't make sense.

If you are inserting some sort of mastering plugin on the output buss, that's fine. But turning up the master fader isn't the way to get it done. The master fader is after any insert. You need to turn the volume up before the insert.

Find a mastering limiter plugin and insert it on the master buss. Lower the threshold until it is loud enough. Job done, as far as just volume goes.
Click to expand...

Yes I meant bus not meter sorry. On Logic you can't seem to add anything to the Master bus, so you need to do it all on the Output.

There are factory settings for mastering which I've been applying to the Output bus. For example the Final Rock Master, which adds an adaptive limiter, compressor etc. Then I turn up the Master fader to get it even louder.

Why is this wrong? Will it mess up the limiting and compression etc? Should I leave the mastering level at 0 and just try to get the same volume with the limiter etc?

Waltz Mastering said:
If you want to give it a go yourself, ..after you have the mixes sounding as good as humanly possible, I'd get in the habit of creating separate sessions just for the mastering and consider it a separate process. Trying to do mastering on the bus of the mix session can be a bit futile when it comes to trying to get cohesion between a group of songs and I can pretty much guarantee none of the records in your collection were done that way.
Click to expand...

So if I start with just one track from a step by step process.

Get my mix down.
Bounce the track down
Open new session
Bring the bounce in
EQ
Add compression
Limiting etc.
Try not to destroy the dynamics
Anything else?

So I should leave the master fader alone? What about the output fader?

I'll try that mastering suite. Why would it be better than the limiter on Logic?
 
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I tried the Noiz-Lab suite and posted a couple of the attempts here in the CLinic. The general consensus was that he sound was better when I just put a Master Limiter on the stereo-rendered track.
 
I don't use logic, so I may be off base. Ussually, you need to turn the threshold on the limiter down in order to turn the aparently volume up. If you turn up the master fader, you are turning up the volume AFTER the limiter when you need to turn it up before the limiter for it to do.anything.

In other words, you need to feed the limiter more signal so that it can limit it. If you turn up the volume after the limiter, you will just clip and the limiter won't be doing anything.
 
Farview said:
I don't use logic, so I may be off base. Ussually, you need to turn the threshold on the limiter down in order to turn the aparently volume up. If you turn up the master fader, you are turning up the volume AFTER the limiter when you need to turn it up before the limiter for it to do.anything.

In other words, you need to feed the limiter more signal so that it can limit it. If you turn up the volume after the limiter, you will just clip and the limiter won't be doing anything.
Click to expand...

Okay, so how do I feed it more signal? Increase the Master fader before I add the limiter? Or...?

Farview said:
I just saw something... you have a master fader and an output fader???
Click to expand...

Yea, Logic Pro X.

4.png
 
Open the limiter plugin, find the threshold control and turn it down. If it's a mastering limiter, this will increase the volume. The master fader and output fader should probably stay at zero. I still don't get why you have both. Which one feeds the other one.

You seem to have 6 things inserted on the output buss. That seems pretty excessive, assuming it isn't a rescue mission of some sort. You've also got two EQ's on Sum 4. Did you really run out of options with the Oxford? (hint: try moving the compressor after the EQ, it might work better or not)
 
That's not my screen, that's just an example of Logic I pulled off Images. They all have both.

I believe that the Output feeds the Master bus, all mastering is done on the Output bus as you aren't able to add anything to the Master bus. Like, it's not physically possible, no option to.
 
Then the master buss needs to be left at zero.

The limiter needs to be inserted on the output buss. You adjust the level with the threshold control on the limiter. The output buss fader should be set at zero as well.
 
Farview said:
Then the master buss needs to be left at zero.

The limiter needs to be inserted on the output buss. You adjust the level with the threshold control on the limiter. The output buss fader should be set at zero as well.
Click to expand...

Okay. What about the process? How should I start mastering a song?

Bounce the track, open a new file, insert bounced track, add EQ, Compression Limiting etc?
 
PhilLondon said:
Okay. What about the process? How should I start mastering a song?

Bounce the track, open a new file, insert bounced track, add EQ, Compression Limiting etc?
Click to expand...

Forget adding_____________ as a rule. Use what the song needs. A Master Limiter will raise the overall volume up, compressing the loudest parts, if you crank the threshold down far enough - this may be all you need if your mix is good.
 
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mjbphotos said:
Forget adding_____________ as a rule. Use what the song needs. A Master Limiter will raise the overall volume up, compressing the loudest parts, if you crank the threashold down far enough - this may be all you need if your mix is good.
Click to expand...
Can't push that enough (especially the first part). Listen - analyze - do what the mix asks you to do.

(That said, a large percentage of engineers would submit that you've done that already while mixing and that loss of objectivity is why it's generally suggested not to go through the mastering process on your own mixes)

"Getting stuff loud" is an afterthought - Translation, balance, consistency from track to track, density, spectral response, image, (etc., etc., etc., yada, yada, yada and so on) - That's the "job" part. A trained monkey with a limiter can pretty much make any mix as loud as any other. Every single step in the production before that is going to dictate if it still actually sounds listenable.
 
That's not what I'm asking. I understand that you use what is needed, I'm just using them as examples. I'm asking where and how I should be doing the mastering.

Bounce the track, open new file? In the same session as the mix? The basic template.

Thanks.
 
I do "loudness processing" on the stereo output bus in the same session as the mix. I won't even use the word "mastering" for what I do. I have a limiter on the output bus from the get go, but that's just protection initially. At some point during mixing I will want to hear how it sounds loud, so I will adjust limiter settings, maybe add compression and EQ, then I turn off the loudness processing and finish mixing. When it comes time to bounce for checking on other playback systems, etc. I revisit the output bus plug-in settings and then it becomes an iterative process from there.

If I get to the point of having tracks that need to be truly mastered, I will send them to a pro.

J
 
Mix the song(s).

Load them into another session

Make the EQ and volume adjustments so they all sound about the same and/or flow nicely from one song to the other.

Add the final compression, EQ and limiting to get the loudness up and the overall sound of the album.
 
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