Question for all you mastering gurus...

[The Wade Studio]

Greetings,

I am putting some final touches on an already mixed-down mix and I'm having problems with the clarity of the bottom end. I need it to be nice and tight. Currently the bottom end sounds like its just all over the place. What I'm aiming for is a smooth, consistent sound.

Does anyone have any special EQ settings, compression and/or cuttoff settings, mastering plugins, or anything else you can think of?

Thanks a lot guys.

www.thewadestudio.com

[Blue Bear Sound]

Sounds like a re-mix is in order!

[The Wade Studio]

I've unfortunately stumbled upon this problem before, and a re-mix is not nesessarily the answer. This same "loose" bottom end was in another mixdown I sent to a professional mastering studio and they had no problem tightening it up. I was wondering if anyone knows how this was accomplished.

[Macartie]

I suggest rolling off some of the lows from the "non-essential"
tracks to let the bass and kick be the primary low instruments.
For example, try putting high-pass filters on the guitars, vocals,
keyboards, room mics, overheads, snare, etc. Set these high-pass
filters at different points, anywhere from 60 to 120 Hz.
You'll notice that the bass and kick will become more apparent.
If you are still lost in the mud, try scooping out some low-mids
(a few dB @ 200-300 Hz) from various instruments, including the bass and kick.

Finally, I suggest that you judge the bass in your mixes while monitoring
at @ 80 dB SPL. That's the point at which human ears are most linear
and best capable of judging bass. You'll need to go to Radio Shack to
get an SPL meter (they run @ $40).

Mastering can certainly help, but it's always better to address problems
in mixing (or recording, for that matter). If you need any more
information, please feel free to contact me directly at mastering@canaveralskies.com

Best,
Arthur Winer
Mastering Engineer
Canaveral Skies Music
(718) 965-6562
http://www.canaveralskies.com/mastering.htm

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally Posted by The Wade Studio

I've unfortunately stumbled upon this problem before, and a re-mix is not nesessarily the answer. This same "loose" bottom end was in another mixdown I sent to a professional mastering studio and they had no problem tightening it up. I was wondering if anyone knows how this was accomplished.

The mastering process may be able to rescue the track, but if you find it happening on a few of your mixes, then you're probably not paying proper attention to the tracking process - or, you're simply not mixing it properly..........

[The Wade Studio]

Thanks Macartie, I'll try that.

[Massive Master]

Yeah, there really isn't any particular way to truly tighten up the lows - If there are specific frequencies that are popping, you can either try to gently EQ them out a bit or compress just those frequencies.

If done properly, it'll at least make the problems less noticable.

HOWEVER, if you can remix, by all means, that's the way to go.

@ Arthur - Dude - That "analog mixer" thing cracked me up! Awesome!

[kylen]

What I'm aiming for is a smooth, consistent sound.

Smooth - Voxengo mastering compressor Soniformer2, 'feather' compression at 1/3 octave 'bands' also includes inverse A+C weighted preemphasis curves. You can also work on the individual m/s (mid-side) components of the stereo field as you could in the 2 band Endorphin.

Consistent - c_SuperStereo, Ozone3, Soniformer2, Adjust the bass freqs (< 120Hz) more into the center of the stereo field using any of these stereo width adjustors.

The mix isn't finished if you don't have smooth and consistent bass IMO even though mastering can readjust the stereo field somewhat. Also if this is a paying gig then mastering by a pro might be considered as a simple business cost. I don't mind playing around with this stuff for my own demos and whatnot though - it's fun !

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by The Wade Studio

I've unfortunately stumbled upon this problem before, and a re-mix is not nesessarily the answer. This same "loose" bottom end was in another mixdown I sent to a professional mastering studio and they had no problem tightening it up. I was wondering if anyone knows how this was accomplished.

Mostly through filtering, EQ, and possibly a compressor wrapped around a dominant frequency that "pops out" more than others.

I have to say that the majority of mixes that I get have a tendency to be a bit "loose" in the bottom. There is a lot of competition in areas around 100-500 Hz for most instruments. As Blue Bear mentioned, try to clean up the mix as much as possible by using complimentary EQ. In other words, if you're boosting one frequency in a particular instrument, reduce it in another instrument that may be competing for that frequency band.

[The Wade Studio]

Thanks everyone, your tips are really helpful. My mix is sounding better already. Keep up the good work!

www.thewadestudio.com

[Phosphene]

I didn't know about the 80db SPL thing. Very helpful!

It's true, and I'm finding more and more that low end used to be my worst enemy for my mixes, and it was hard to let go of it. Now, I have a better understanding about just letting go of some lows to avoid boomy mixes. I'm still working on it, however.

[EagleEars]

If you have the tools, try shelving the bottom end below 100hz until the kick and bass are nice and tight, the bass will probably sound a little thin.

Then bring the bass back in with parallel compression until it fills out the thinness. This way you'll retain the lower end punch and transients while controlling bottom end "fullness'.

If you dont have the tools for P compression, you can send me a short clip and I'll show you what I mean.

Eagle Ears

[helyfede]

Try with Waves Rbass or Waves megabass (best for bass all over the world)
but If you can remix it and use the plugins in the rack of the track with bass problem.