question for the mastering guys

[FALKEN]

I have been working on a body of work for the past few months, just for fun to test out my new gear. I got the best recording I have ever made... I tracked it to tape, used tube pre-amps, and a variety of microphones and a couple different compressors. on vocals I used an oktava LDC and a CAD 95 SDC for a room mic. I hit the tape pretty hot. I did a rough mixdown to my pc at 24/96, using an Echo Layla. The mix is pretty amazing.

Now, I have tried adding limiting to my mixes before, always with horrible results. This time is MUCH better. But there is still audible distortion on the vocals, enough to cause fatigue pretty quickly.

Now, my questions is, is this something that can be fixed by professional mastering? Or do I have to re-think my signal chain, and invest in some more "quality" mics and pres?

I am working on getting an analog mixdown reel, to bring in for mastering, so that I can use the ME's A/D converters, and also limit with good outboard gear rather than software. This also might fix the situation?

Thanks.

[Massive Master]

If you're limiting the mix for sheer volume, yeah, leave it for later.

If you're limiting individual tracks to make them sit better in the mix as a whole, you may have to turn everything else down first. If you're out of headroom, you're out.

[FALKEN]

I am just limiting the mix for volume and presence. trying to figure out how to reduce the distortion arising from this process, and if it is a matter of simply having someone else master it, or upgrading my signal chain.

[Farview]

It would depend on why the vocals are distorting. If the vocals are in the limiter so much that they distort, you might be trying to make the mix louder than it wants to be. Sometimes better equipment cando this more transparently. A Cranesong or Manley mastering compressor will be able to get it louder (without artifacts) than an L2 plugin, but you can only push a mix so far before you run into problems.

[FALKEN]

the mix is extremely dynamic to start with. I am tryin to bring it from RMS of about -22 to about -18, which I think is reasonable.

[masteringhouse]

If there are only particular sections of the vocal or mix that are causing the problem you may want to try automating those sections so that they don't hit the limiter as hard causing the distortion.

As we all know compression and limiting aren't the only ways to control volume issues, sometimes it's easy to forget this when all you have to do is plug something in and have a coffee...

[chessrock]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

As we all know compression and limiting aren't the only ways to control volume issues, sometimes it's easy to forget this when all you have to do is plug something in and have a coffee...

I could have sworn I heard someone say "coffee."