Mastering Questions

G

Great

New member
Hi, I mix hip hop music and I would like to have a few songs mastered in the near future so I have some questions... any responses would be helpful.

These are all generally speaking of course.. I know people work in different ways...

1. What is the ideal volume (or average rms level) to have a song at before sent to the mastering engineer?

2. Where is the frequency cut at the bottom of a hip hop song on the final mix? 20, 30, 40 hz?

3. And ....would I do the bottom end cut or does the M.E. take care of that?

Thanks in advance everyone
 
(1) Whatever level the mix sounded good at with no clipping.

(2) If the mix needs it, then wherever it sounds right.

(3) Rough call there - I'd try to have that handled at the track level - The whole mix shouldn't need it if it was handled there.
 
To back up what "Massive Master" said:

1. No. If the average levels for each song is all over the place it's not a huge deal especially for Mastering Engineers that know what they're doing. They do a/b song by song, in order in regards to track (song) order.

2. Don't filter out any low frequencies. If you like how it sounds in a mix, leave it up to the options the Mastering Engineer (while you're there - they'd know best based on what you ask them - that's what they're getting paid for).

3. Again, don't cut any bottom if you like the mix you made/heard pre-mastering.

I mix down either on analog or digital and when I mix to digital I put a limiter on the stereo output but just barely, just enough so it doesn't add any gain (input to limiter) and the output isn't any louder than -0.3dB.

The other thing to keep in mind is a conservative mix will be better with strong Mastering as opposed to an aggressive mix that has no headroom. It's a 'dance' that's learned over time. If you have a Mastering Engineer in mind that you'd like to work with I encourage you to ask them to take a listen or take a crack at one of the tunes... he or she might give some mix tips based on one or two songs you think are strong mixes (pre-mastered).

I'd rather you spend maybe a little more money in doing a few Q&A mastering tests with someone than spending money on a full-length mastering session where it's fully realized that you should've done 'this' instead of 'that'.

Take care,
-- Adam Lazlo
 
And to backup Adam:

It's better to have the bass (within reason) and remove it later than try to add it. Don't bother filtering, let the ME do it so that the bottom end can be sculpted as needed.

Same for the overall levels, it's better to have dynamics then not at the mastering stage.
 
masteringhouse said:
And to backup Adam:
It's better to have the bass (within reason) and remove it later than try to add it. Don't bother filtering, let the ME do it so that the bottom end can be sculpted as needed.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the whole mix, yeah. If you mean on a track, it depends on what track you're talking about. You probably do want to do a low cut on things like vocal tracks, since it's all room noise anyway. You may find that there are other tracks (e.g. cymbals) where the bass just adds mud. Fix that at the track level....
 
dgatwood said:
If you're talking about the whole mix, yeah. If you mean on a track, it depends on what track you're talking about. You probably do want to do a low cut on things like vocal tracks, since it's all room noise anyway. You may find that there are other tracks (e.g. cymbals) where the bass just adds mud. Fix that at the track level....
Click to expand...

I was refering to the entire mix, I agree with your points on the tracks.
 
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