Pro Mastering Questions

ChristopherM

New member
Had these questions in another thread, but perhaps their being somewhat out-of-context led to their not getting answered:

What is the usual way to transport your tracks to the mastering facility. I've only had friends do my tracks and have never dealt with a hired pro mixing/mastering facility.

Is it best for one to do their own mixing and send in the stereo mix or to transfer all the files separately? Maybe including a self-made mix to give the idea of what it's sort-of meant to sound like?

If you are best off sending in separate tracks, are most mastering facilities equipped to handle Cakewalk's Sonar files? Should they be converted to separate WAV files or otherwise?

Thanks in advance.
 
Your question is kind of consusing, which explains why no one has answered. Do you know what mastering is and/or what a mastering engineer does?

Do you know what mixing is, and/or what a mixing engineer does?

Do you know how the two separate processes differ from one another?
 
chessrock said:
Your question is kind of consusing, which explains why no one has answered. Do you know what mastering is and/or what a mastering engineer does?

Do you know what mixing is, and/or what a mixing engineer does?

Do you know how the two separate processes differ from one another?
Thanks. Looking back, I see my question was pretty poorly worded. I hope this is an improvement:

OK...I've got a pretty good grasp of mixing, and I've got a pretty good idea what mastering is, I'm just wondering where the line is drawn between them. By that, I mean does a mastering engineer prefer you to have already mixed your music into a stereo mix for them to master, or do they prefer to have all sixteen or whatever tracks separately in case they need to fix something about an individual track?

Also, if they do require all the tracks to be separate, and they end up putting it all together for you, aren't they in fact kind of mixing as well?

Thirdly, I was asking about the best format to transfer files to a mastering facility. I'm guessing that if it were a stereo mixdown, the answer would be either a .wav or a tape of some kind.
 
By that, I mean does a mastering engineer prefer you to have already mixed your music into a stereo mix for them to master, or do they prefer to have all sixteen or whatever tracks separately in case they need to fix something about an individual track?

Mastering is with a two track mixdown of all the individual tracks. The mastering engineer works on this two track mix not on individual tracks. You should get the best possible mix BEFORE sending you music to the Mastering Engineer. As the old saying goes "you can't polish a turd".

I was asking about the best format to transfer files to a mastering facility. I'm guessing that if it were a stereo mixdown, the answer would be either a .wav or a tape of some kind.

It depends on the Mastering Facility and what gear they have/prefer. Usually it will either be a data disc with wav files or similar or it will be on a DAT tape. One important thing to remember is to keep your mixdowns at the highest resolution possible. Don't dither. That's the Mastering Engineers job.

Tukkis
 
ChristopherM,
Each facility is a little different, but in my experiance, the main forte of the mastering places are to work with your stereo mixes. Granted most facilities due to need have also taken a few steps back into the process and will offer mixing as well. But typically they want your stereo mixes first, if they have severe problems with your mix they may ask for a second mix with certain adjustments (vocal up or down-less bass etc.) If that don't cut it they will ask for a 2+2 mix (stereo mix w/o vocals and and additional 2 tracks of vocals to blend in) if THAT doesnt work then they may offer their services for mixing.

It is an invaluable asset to develope a good relationship (if possible) with a good ME. They will help you develope your mixes to the point of working seamlessly hand in hand with them to make it a smooth process.

Most facilities now days will ask for high res data files (24 bit +) and in either aiff or .wav format to master in and then will down sample to 16 bit CD files. That way all their processing is done at a higher resolution as well.

Hope that helps !

Tom

Dang! Tukkis beat me while I was typing !
 
ChristopherM said:
Had these questions in another thread, but perhaps their being somewhat out-of-context led to their not getting answered:

What is the usual way to transport your tracks to the mastering facility.


Contact the facility and ask them what their preference is and see if you have that format. Im willing to bet data cdr with the highest resolution you have is the option you'll end up sending. In the older days , it could have been DAT, CDR, Exabyte and 1/2" to name a couple. You might do alternate mixes like one a little more bass heavy and one a little more vocal up front. The ME will be able to pick which one translates with the least amount of trash talk. If you have a cable modem or DSL some places do FTP which is a nice feature.
Contact the ME and have a nice discussion.


SoMm
 
Mastering is the final stage, mixing of the stereo 2 channel end product.

So check this out, if I cut up a final mix file at different frequency ranges and compress them, apply the fixings. Then I can recomplie all the individually eq'd and compressed sections and have a much better "master" then if I would just apply a compressor to the whole final mix. Which I hear the mastering engineers do... but as a final final stage only.
 
Your talking about multi-band compression.

What you are talking about is multi-band compression and the reason that's done is not the same reasons you would use an overall compressor.

When you compress a file in a specific frequency (most of the time) it's to bring that section more to the front of the mix, not to control the average to peak ratio. Keep in mind that the settings are different and the right frequency band, along with the right amount of ratio and threshold have a lot to do with the results that are achieved. When done well the results can bring a dead recording to life, and when done wrong can ruin the depth of the set material.

Multi-band compression has it's place in the mastering stage but it's not always done. It's another tool that the Mastering Engineer has the skill to apply, when the material needs that type of application.

Like I mentioned before. Mastering Engineers do this for a living, hours after hour , day after day and year after year. That's what makes these people so good at what they do.

It's just not that simple.
sonicpaint
 
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